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THE mm IN HIS ¥IG¥AM, 



OR 



CHARACTERISTICS 



OF THE 



RED RACE OF AMERICA- 



FROM OltlGINAL NOTES AND MANUSCRIPTS. 



BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 

Memb. Royal Geographical Society of London, and of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, 
Copenhagen ; Hon. Memb. of the Natural History Society of Montreal, Canada East ; Memb. of 
the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; of the American Antiquarian Society 
Worcester ; of the American Geological Society, New Haven ; Vice-President of the American 
Ethnological Society, New York ; Hon. Memb. of the New York Historical Society ; Hon. Mennit 
of the Historical Society of Georgia ; President of the Michigan Historical Society ; and Hon. 
Memb. of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society ; Cor. Memb. of the New York Lyceum 
of Natural History, and of the Lyceums of Natural History of Troy and Hudson, N. Y. ; Memb. 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; of the Albany Institute at the State Capitol, 
Albany, and a Res. Memb. of the National Institute at Washington ; President of the Algic Society 
for meliorating the condition of the Native Race in the United States, instituted in 1831; Hon, 
Memb. of the Goethean and of the Philo L. Collegiate Societies of Pennsylvania, &c. &c. 



NEW YORK- 
DEWITT & DAVENPORT, 

fBlXVNX BUlIiDIirOI. 

1843. 



Ey Tcaas&t 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

It is now twenty -six years since I first entered the area of the Missis- 
sippi valley, with the view of exploring its then but imperfectly known 
features, geographical and geological. Twenty-two years of this period 
have elapsed since I entered on the duties of an Executive Agent for the 
United States Government in its higher northern latitudes among the In 
dian tribes in the west. Having devoted so large a portion of my life in 
an active sphere, in which the intervals of travel left me favourable oppor- 
tunities of pursuing the languages and history of this branch of the 
race, it appears to be a just expectation, that, in sitting down to give some 
account of this people, there should be some preliminary remarks, to ap- 
prise the reader how and why it is, that his attention is recalled to a topic 
which he may have supposed to be well nigh exhausted. This it is pro- 
posed to do by some brief personal reminiscences, beginning at the time 
above alluded to. 

The year 1814 constituted a crisis, not only in our political history, 
but also in our commercial, manufacturing, and industrial interests. The 
treaty of Ghent, which put a period to the war with England, was a 
blessing to many individuals and classes in America : but, in its conse- 
quences, it had no small share of the effects of a curse upon that class of 
citizens who were engaged in certain branches of manufactures. It was 
a peculiarity of the crisis, that these persons had been stimulated by 
double motives, to invest their capital and skill in the perfecting and estab- 
lishment of the manufactories referred to, by the actual wants of the 
country and the high prices of the foreign articles. No pains and no cost 
had been spared, by many of them, to supply this demand ; and it was 
another result of the times, that no sooner had they got well estabhshed, 
and were in the high road of prosperity than the peace came and plunged 
them headlong from the pinnacle of success. This blow fell heavier 
upon some branches than others. It was most fatal to those manufacturers 
who had undertaken to produce fabrics of the highest order, or which 
belong to an advanced state of the manufacturing prosperity of a nation. 
Be this as it may, however, it fell with crushing force upon that branch in 
which I was engaged. As soon as the American ports were opened to 
these fabrics, the foreign makers who could undersell us, poured in cargo 
on cargo ; and when the first demands had been met, these cargoes were 
ordered to be sold at auction; the prices immediately fell to the lowest 
point, and the men who had staked in one enterprise their zeal, skill and 
money, were ruined at a blow. 

Every man in such a crisis, must mentally recoil upon himself Habits 

5 



6 



PERSONAL REMINZSCSNCES. 



of application, reading, and an early desire to be useful, had sustained 
me at a prior period of life, through the dangers and fascinations of jovial 
company. There was in this habit or temper of room-seclusion, a pleas- 
ing resource of a conservative character, which had filled up the intervals 
of my busiest hours ; and when business itself came to a stand, it had 
the effect to aid me in balancing and poising my mind, while I pre- 
pared to enter a wider field, and indeed, to change my whole plan of life. 
If it did not foster a spirit of right thought and self-dependence, it, at 
least, gave a degree of tranquillity to the intervals of a marked pause, and, 
perhaps, flattered the ability to act. 

Luckily I was still young, and with good animal spirits, and a sound 
constitution I resolved I would not go down so. The result of seven 
years of strenuous exertions, applied with persevering diligence and suc- 
cess, was cast to the winds, but it was seven years of a young man's life, 
and I thought it could be repaired by time and industry. What the east 
withheld, I hoped might be supplied by another quarter. I turned my 
thoughts to the west, and diligently read all I could find on the subject. 
The result of the war of 1812, (if this contest had brought no golden 
showers on American manufacturers, as I could honestly testify in my 
own case,) had opened to emigration and enterprise the great area 
west of the Alleghanies. The armies sent out to battle with Indian, 
and other foes, on the banks of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Detroit, the 
Raisin and the Miami of the Lakes, had opened to observation attractive 
scenes for settlement ; and the sword was no sooner cast aside, than emi- 
grants seized hold of the axe and the plough. This result was worth the 
cost of the whole contest, honour and glory included. The total prostra- 
tion of the moneyed system of the country, the effects of city-lot and other 
land speculations, while the system was at its full flow, and the very 
backward seasons of 1816 and 1817, attended with late and early frosts, 
which extensively destroyed the corn crop in the Atlantic states, all lent 
their aid in turning attention towards the west and south-vi'est, where seven 
new states have been peopled and organized, within the brief period to 
which these reminiscences apply : namely, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, 
Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and Michigan, besides the flourishing terri- 
tories of Wisconsin and Iowa, and the more slowly advancing territory 
of Florida. It appeared to me, that information, geographical and other, 
of such a wide and varied region, whose boundaries were but ill defined, 
must be interesting at such a period ; and I was not without the hope that 
the means of my future advancement would be found in connexion with 
the share I might take in the exploration of it. With such views I resolved 
10 go west. This feeling I find to be expressed on the back of an old slip 
of an account of the period : 



I will go by western fountain, 
I will wander far and wide ; 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



7. 



Till some sunny spot .invite me, 
Till some guardian bid me bide. 

" Snow or tempest — plain the drearest 

Shall oppose a feeble bar, 
Since I go from friends the dearest, 
'Tis no matter then how far. 

" On ! — 'tis useless here to dally ; 

On ! — I can but make or mar ; 
Since my fortune leads to sally, 

'Tis no matter then how far." 

Of the " seven years" to which allusion has been made I had spent 
four in New England a land, which is endeared to me at this distance of 
time, by recollections of hospitality, virtue, and manly intelligence. 

While engaged in the direction of the business above named, I had pre- 
pared the notes and materials for my first publication, in which I aimed 
to demonstrate the importance of an acquaintance with Chemistry and 
Mineralogy in the preparation and fusion of numerous substances in the 
mineral kingdom, which result in the different conditions of the various 
glasses, enamels, (fee. I had, from early youth, cultivated a taste for 
mineralogy, long indeed it may be said, before I knew that mineralogy 
was a science ; and, as opportunities increased, had been led by my in 
quiries, (which I followed with ardour but with very slight helps,) to add 
to this some knowledge of elementary chemistry and experimental philos- 
ophy, and to supply myself, from Boston and New York, with books, 
apparatus, and tests. I do not know that there were any public lectures 
on mineralogy, &c. at this time, say from 1810 to '16 ; certainly, there 
were none within my reach. I gleaned from the best sources I could, 
and believe that the late Professor Frederick Hall was the only person to 
whom I was indebted even for occasional instructions in these depart- 
ments. He was a man strongly devoted to some of the natural sciences, 
particularly mineralogy ; and was erudite in the old authors on the sub- 
ject, whom he liked to quote ; and I may say that I continued to enjoy 
his confidence and friendship to the time of his death, which happened in 
1843. From such sources, from the diligent reading of books, and 
from experiments, conducted with the advantage of having under my 
charge extensive works, at various times, in the states of New York, Ver- 
mont and New Hampshire, I drew the principles which formed the basis ' 
of my treatise on Vitreology. With this work in hand, I left Keene, in 
New Hampshire, early in the winter of 1817 ; and, crossing the Con- 
necticut river at Brattleboro,' proceeded over the Green Mountains, by the 
route of Bennington, to Albany, and thence returned to my father's house 
in western New York. No time was lost in issuing proposals for the 
work ; and I had the satisfaction to find that the portions published, and 



8 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES^ 



the entire plan and merits of it were warmly approved by the pen of the 
late Mr. Maynard of Utica, and by several liberal minded and intelligent 
persons. Before quitting New England, I had determined to go to the 
Mississippi valley, and had begun to study its geography ; and I now 
resolved to proceed, without unnecessary delay. 

Means constitute the first object of solicitude in all such undertakings. 
The ebbing tide of manufacturing prosperity to which I have referred, had 
left me very poor. From the fragments of former acquisitions, for which, 
however, I was exclusively indebted to my own industry, I raised a small 
sum of money — much smaller I think than most mxen would be willing 
to start with, who had resolved to go so far. I had, in truth, but sixt}!- 
dollars in the world ; but I possessed a very good wardrobe,- and some 
other personal means, such as it may be supposed will adhere to a man 
who has lived in abundance for many years. I put up a miniature col- 
lection of mineralogical specimens, to serve as a standard of comparison 
in the west, a few implements for analysis, some books Avhich I thought it 
would be difficult to meet with in that region, and some drawing mate- 
rials. I had connected these things in some wa);^ with my future success. 
In other respects, I had the means, as above hinted, of making a respect- 
able appearance. Thus prepared, I bade adieu to my father and mother, 
and also to three sisters and a brother, all younger than myself, and set 
forward. The winter of 1818 had opened before I reached my brother's 
house at Geneva, in western New York. From this point I determined 
to leave the main track, through the Genessee county west, and to strike 
the head waters of the Alleghany river, so as to descend that stream with 
the spring flood. 

My brother drove me in his own sleigh, as far as Angelica. By the 
time we reached that place, being no traveller and much fatigued with 
the intricacies and roughness of the road, he was fain to give over his 
undertaking, and I parted from him, sending back the sleigh from Olean, 
to take him home. 

The Alleghany river was locked with ice when I reached it. I had 
an opportunit}'- to cross it on foot, and to examine in the vicinity those 
evidences of the coal formation which are found in masses of bituminous 
shale, slaty coal and petroleum. The river began to open about the middle 
of March. I left Olean in the first ark for the season, borne onwards down 
the sweeping Alleghany at the top of the flood, often through winding 
channels, and once in danger of being precipitated over a mill dam, by 
taking the wrong channel. 

On another occasion, just as we were coming to the division of the 
channel, at the head of a group of islands, a tall Seneca Indian, standing 
in the bow of a very long pine canoe, cried out, in a tone of peculiar em- 
phasis, " Keep to the right — I speak it." This direction we followed, and 
were saved from another mishap. We tied the ark to the shore at night. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



9 



built a fire on the bank and cooked a supper. On passing the Conowonga, 
it was at the height of its flood, and appeared to bring in as much water as 
the Alleghany. We stopped at the noted chief Cornplanter's village, and 
also to gratify a reminiscent curiosity, at the mouth of French Creek, 
connected with Washington's perilous adventure in visiting Fort de Boef, 
now Erie. At Kittaning, a great scow ferry boat was rowed and man- 
aged by two women or girls with a degree of muscular exertion, or rather 
ease, which would put to the blush many a man east or west of the AUe- 
ghanies. The tone, air, and masculine strength of these girl-boatmen, 
reminded me of nothing this side of Rollin's description of the Amazons 
— save that the same provision was not apparent for drawing the bow. 
Bold hills line both banks of the river along its upper parts, and continue, 
indeed, at farther intervals apart, to very near the junction of the Monon- 
gahela ; but long before this point, the stream is one of noble dimensions, 
clear, broad, and strong. After a voyage of exciting and vivid interest, 
I reached and landed at Pittsburgh. 



NO. 11. 



It is Dr. Johnson, I think, who says, that we take slight occasions to 
be pleased. At least, I found it so, on the present occasion ; the day of 
my arrival was my birth day, and it required but little stretch of imagi- 
nation to convert the scene upon which I had now entered, into a new 
world. It was new to me. — I was now fairly in the great geological 
valley of the west, the object of so many anticipations. 

The ark, in which I had descended the Allegany, put ashore near the 
point of land, which is formed by the junction of the Monongahela with 
this fine clear stream. The dark and slowly moving waters of the one, 
contrasted strongly with the sparkling velocity of the other. I felt a 
buoyancy of spirits as I leapt ashore, and picked up some of its clean 
pebbles to see what kind of geological testimony they bore to the actual 
character of their parent beds in the Apalachian range. 

" What shall I pay you, for my passage, from Olean," said I, to the 
gentleman with whom I had descended, and at whose ark-table I had 
found a ready seat with his family. " Nothing, my dear sir," he replied 
with a prompt and friendly air, — " Your cheerful aid in the way, taking 
the oars whenever the case required it, has more than compensated for 
any claims on that score, and I only regret that you are not going further 
with us." 

Committing my baggage to a carman, I ascended the bank of diluvial 
earth and pebbles with all eagerness, and walked to the point of land 
where Fort Pitt (old Fort Du Gluesne) had stood. It is near this point 
that the Alleghany and Monongahela unite, and give birth to the noble 
Ohio. It is something to stand at the head of such a stream. The 
charm of novelty is beyond all others. I could realize, in thought, as I 
stood here, gazing pn the magnificent prospect of mingling waters, and 
their prominent and varied shores, the idea, which is said to be embodied 
in the old Mingo substantive-exclamation of 0-he-o ! a term, be it remem- 
beredj which the early French interpreters at once rendered, and truly, it 
is believed, by the name of La Belle Riviere. 

So far, I said to myself, all is well, — I am now west of the great 
spinal chain. All that I know of America is now fairly east of me — 
bright streams, warm hearts and all. I have fairly cast myself loose 

10 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



11 



on the wide waters of the west. I have already come as many hundred 
miles, as there are days in the week, but I begin my travels here. I 
have, as it were, taken my life in my hand. Father and mother, I may 
never see more. God wot the result. I go to seek and fulfil an unknown 
destiny. Come weal or woe, I shall abide the result. All the streams 
run south, and I have laid in, with " time and chance" for a journey with 
them. I am but as a chip on their surface — nothing more ! Whether 
my bones are to rest in this great valley, or west of the Cordilleras, or the 
Rocky Mountains, I know not. I shall often think of the silver Iosco, 
the farther I go from it. To use a native metaphor. My foot is on the 
path, and the word, is onward ! " The spider taketh hold with her 
hands," Solomon says, " and is in king's palaces." Truly, a man should 
accomplish, by diligence, as much as a spider. 

Pittsburgh was, even then, a busy manufacturing town, filled witn 
working machinery, steam engines, hammers, furnaces, and coal smoke. 
I visited Mr. O'Hara, and several other leading manufacturers. They 
made glass, bar iron, nails, coarse pottery, castings, and many other 
articles, which filled its shops and warehouses, and gave it a city-like 
appearance. Every chimney and pipe, perpendicular or lateral, puffed 
out sooty coal smoke, and it required some dexterity to keep a clean collar 
half a day. I met ladies who bore this impress of the city, on their morning 
toilet. I took lodgings at Mrs. McCullough's, a respectable hotel on Wood 
street, and visited the various manufactories, for which the place was then, 
and is now celebrated. In these visits, I collected accurate data of the cost 
of raw material, the place where obtained, the expense of manufacture, and 
the price of the finished fabric. I had thus a body of facts, which enabled 
me, at least to converse understandingly on these topics, to give my 
friends in the east, suitable data, and to compare the advantages of manu- 
facturing here with those possessed by the eastern and middle states. Every 
thing was, in the business prospects of the west, however, at a compara- 
tively low ebb. The prostrating effects of the war, and of the peace, were 
alike felt. We had conquered England, in a second contest, but were 
well exhausted with the effort. The country had not recovered from the 
sacrifices and losses of a series of military operations, which fell most 
heavily on its western population. Its agricultural industry had been 
crippled. Its financial affairs were deranged. Its local banks were 
broken ; its manufactories were absolutely ruined. There was little con- 
fidence in business, and never was credit, public and private, at a lower 
ebb. There was however, one thing, in which the west held out a 
shining prospect. It had abundance of the finest lands in the world, 
and in fact, it promised a happy home to the agricukural industry of half 
the world. It was literally the land of promise, to the rest of the union, 
if not to Europe. 

Having seen whatever I wished in Pittsburgh, I hired a horse and 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

crossing tKe 'Monongahela, went up its southern banks, as'hign'as 
liamsport, I found the country people were in the habit of calling the city 
" Pitt" or " Fort Pitt," a term dating back doubtless to the time of the sur- 
render, or rather taking possession of Fort Du Q,uesne, by Gen. Forbes. 
Mineral coal (bituminous) characterizes the entire region, as far as my 
excursion reached. By a happy coincidence in its geological structure, 
iron ores are contained in the series of the coal deposits. On returning 
from this trip, night set in, very dark : on the evening I approached the 
summit of the valley of the Monongahela, called Coal Hill. The long and 
winding road down this steep was one mass of moving mud, only varied 
in its consistence, by sloughs, sufficient to mire both man and horse. I was 
compelled to let the animal choose his own path, and could only give 
him aid, when the flashes of lightning lit up the scene with a momentary 
brilliance, which, however, had often no other effect but to remind me of 
my danger. He brought me, at length, safely to the brink of the river, 
and across the ferry. 

To be at the head of the Ohio river, and in the great manufacturing 
city of the West, was an exciting thought, in itself I had regarded 
Pittsburgh as the alpha, in my route, and after I had made mj^self familiar 
with its characteristics, and finding nothing to invite my further attention, 
I prepared to go onward. For this purpose, I went down to the banks 
of the Monongahela, one day, where the arks of that stream usually 
touch, to look for a passage. I met on the beach, a young man from Massa- 
chusetts, a Mr. Brigham, — who had come on the same errand, and being 
pleased with each other, we engaged a passage together, and getting our 
baggage aboard immediately, set off the same evening. To float in an ark, 
down one of the loveliest rivers in the world, was, at least, a novelty, and 
as all novelty gives pleasure, we went on charmingly. There were some 
ten or a dozen passengers, including two married couples. We prome- 
naded the decks, and scanned the ever changing scenery, at every bend, 
with unalloyed delight. At night we lay down across the boat, with 
our feet towards the fire-place, in a line, with very little diminution 
of the wardrobe we carried by da}^, — the married folks, like light 
infantry in an army, occupying the flanks of our nocturnal array. The 
only objection I found to the night's rest, arose from the obligation, 
each one was tacitly under, to repair on deck, at the hollow night-cry 
of "oars!" from the steersman. This was a cry which was seldom 
tittered, however, except when we were in danger of being shoved, by 
the current, on the head of some island, or against some frowning "snag," 
so that we had a mutual interest in being punctual at this cry. By it, 
sleep was to be enjoyed only in sections, sometimes provokingly short, and 
our dreams of golden vallies, studded with pearls and gems, were oddly 
jumbled with the actual presence of plain matter of fact things, such as 
running across a tier of "old monongahela" or getting one's fingers 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



13 



trod on, in scrambling on deck. We took our meals on our laps, sitting 
around on boxes and barrels, and made amends for the want of style or 
elegance, by cordial good feeling and a practical exhibition of the best 
principles of " association," There was another pleasing peculiarity in 
this mode of floating. Two or more arks were frequently lashed 
together, by order of their commanders, whereby our conversational circle 
was increased, and it was not a rare circumstance to find both singers 
and musicians, in the moving communities for " the west," so that those 
who were inclined to, might literally dance as they went. This was 
certainly a social mode of conquering the wilderness, and gives some 
idea of the bouyancy of American character. How different from the 
sensations felt, in floating down the same stream, by the same means, in 
the^ era of Boon,— the gloomy era of 1777, when instead of violin, or 
flageolet, the crack of the Indian rifle was the only sound to be anticipated 
at every new bend of the channel. 

Off Wheeling the commander of our ark made fast to a larger one 
from the Monongahela, which, among other acquaintances it brought, 
introduced me to the late Dr. Sellman of Cincinnatti, who had been a 
surgeon in Wayne's army. This opened a vista of reminiscences, which 
were wholly new to me, and served to impart historical interest to the scene. 
Some dozen miles below this town, we landed at the Grave Creek Flats, 
for the purpose of looking at the large mound, at that place. I did not 
then know that it was the largest artificial structure of this kind in ttie 
western country. It was covered with forest trees of the native growth, 
some of which were several feet in diameter, and it had indeed, essen- 
tially the same look and character, whicl. I found it to present, twenty- 
five years afterwards, when I made a special visit to this remarkable 
mausoleum to verify the character of some of its antiquarian contents. 
On ascending the flat summit of the mound, I fOimd a charming prospect 
around. The summit was just 50 feet across. There was a cup-shaped 
concavity, in its centre, exciting the idea that there had been some internal 
sub-structure which had given way, and caused the earth to cave in. 
This idea, after having been entertained for more than half a century, 
was finally verified in 1838, when Mr. Abelard Tomlinson, a grandson 
of the first proprietor, caused it to be opened. They discovered two 
remarkable vaults, built partly of stone, and partly of logs, as was judged 
from the impressions in the earth. They were situated about seventeen 
feet apart, one above the other. Both contained bones, the remains of 
human skeletons, along with copper bracelets, plates of mica, sea shells, 
heads of wrought conch, called " ivory" by the multitude, and some other 
relics, most of which were analogous to articles of the same kind occur- 
ring in other ancient mounds in the west. The occasion would not indeed 
have justified the high expectations which had been formed, had it not been 
kx the discoveryj in one of the vaulte, of a small flat etpne of an oval foriR, 



14 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



containing an inscription in ancient characters. This inscription, which 
promises to throw new light on the early history of America, has not 
heen decyphered. Copies of it have been sent abroad. It is thought, 
by the learned at Copenhagen, to be Celtiberic. It is not, in their view, 
Runic. It has, apparently, but one hieroglyphic, or symbolic figure. 

A good deal of historical interest clusters about this discovery of the 
mscribed stone. Tomlinson, the grandfather, settled on these flats in 1772, 
two years before the murder of Logan's family. Large trees, as large as 
any in the forest, then covered the flats and the mound. There stood in 
the depression I have mentioned, in the top of the mound, a large beech 
tree, which had been visited earlier, as was shewn by several names and 
dates cut on the bark. Among these, there was one of the date of A. D. 
1734. This I have seen stated under Mr. Tomlinson's own hand. The 
place continued to be much visited from 1770 to 1790, as was shewn 
by newer names and dates, and indeed, continues to be so still. There 
was standing at the time of my first visit in 1818, on the very summit 
of the mound, a large dead or decayed white oak, which was cut down, 
it appears, about ten years afterwards. On counting its cortical layers, 
it was ascertained to be about 500 years old. This would denote the 
V desertion of the mound to have happened about the commencement of 
the 13th century. Granting to this, what appears quite clear, that the in- 
scription is of European origin, have we not evidence, in this fact, of 
the continent's having been visited prior to the era of Columbus? 
Visited by whom ? By a people, or individuals, it may be said, who had 
the use of an antique alphabet, which was much employed, (although 
corrupted, varied and complicated by its spread) among the native priest- 
hood of the western shores and islands of the European continent, prior 
to the introduction of the Roman alphabet. 

The next object of antiquarian interest, in my descent, was at Gallipolis 

^the site of an original French settlement on the west bank, which is 
connected with a story of much interest, in the history of western 
migrations. It is an elevated and eligible plain, which had before been 
the site of an Indian, or aboriginal settlement. Some of the articles found 
in a mound, such as plates of mica and sea shells, and beads of the wrought 
conch, indicated the same remote period for this ancient settlement, as 
the one at Grave Creek Flats ; but 1 never heard of any inscribed articles, 
or monuments bearing alphabetic characters. 

All other interest, then known, on this subject, yielded to that which 
was felt in witnessing the antique works at Marietta. Like many others 
who had preceded me and many who have followed me, in my visit, I felt 
while walking over these semi-military ruins, a strong wish to know, 
who had erected works so diflTerent from those of the present race of In- 
dians, and during what phasis of the early history of the continent ? 
A covered way had, evidently, been constructed, from the margin of 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 15 

the Muskingum to the elevated square, evincing more than the ordi- 
nary degree of military skill exercised by the Western Indians. Yet 
these works revealed one trait, which assimilates them, in character, with 
others, of kindred stamp, in the west. I allude to the defence of the open 
gate-way, by a minor mound ; clearly denoting that the passage was to be 
disputed by men, fighting hand to hand, who merely sought an advantage 
in exercising manual strength, by elevation of position. The Marietta 
tumuH also, agree in style with others in the Ohio valley. 

A leaden plate was found near this place, a few years after this visit, of 
which an account was given by Gov. Clinton, in a letter to the American 
Antiquarian Society, in 1827, but the inscription upon it, which was in 
Latin, but mutilated, proved that it related to the period of the French 
supremacy in the Canadas. It appeared to have been originally deposited 
at the mouth of the river Venango, A. D. 1 749, during the reign of 
Louis XV. 

While at Marietta, our flotilla was increased by another ark from the 
Muskingum, which brought to my acquaintance the Hon. Jesse B. Thomas, 
of Illinois, to whose civilities I was afterwards indebted, on several occa- 
sions. Thus reinforced, we proceeded on, delighted with the scenery of 
every new turn in the river, and augmenting our circle of fellow travellers, 
and table acquaintance, if that can be called a table acquaintance which 
assembles around a rustic board. One night an accident befel us, which 
threatened the entire loss of one of our flotilla. It so happened, at the 
spot of our landing, that the smaller ark, being outside, was pressed by the 
larger ones, so far ashore, as to tilt the opposite side into the stream below 
the caulked seam It would have sunk, in a few minutes, but was held 
up, partly by its fastening to the other boats. To add to the interest felt, 
it was filled with valuable machinery. A congress of the whole travelling 
community assembled on shore, some pitching pebble-stones, and some 
taking a deeper interest in the fate of the boat. One or two unsuccessful 
efforts had been made to bail it out, but the water flowed in faster than 
it could be removed. To cut loose the rope and abandon it, seemed all 
that remained. " I feel satisfied," said I, " to my Massachusetts friend, 
that two men, bailing with might and main, can throw out more water, 
in a given time, than is let in by those seams ; and if you will step in 
with me, we will test it, by trying again." With a full assent and ready 
good will he met this proposition. We pulled off* our coats, and each 
taking a pail,' stepped in the water, then half-leg deep in the ark, and 
began to bail away, with all force. By dint of determination we soon 
had the satisfaction to see the water line lower, and catching new spirit 
at this, we finally succeeded in sinking its level below the caulked seam. 
The point was won. Others now stepped in to our relief The ark 
and its machinery were saved. This little incident was one of those 
which served to produce pleasurable sensations, all round, and led per 



16 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



haps, to some civilities at a subsequent date, which were valuable to me. 
At any rate, Mr. Thomas, who owned the ark, was so well pleased, that 
he ordered a warm breakfast of toast, chickens, and coffee on shore 
for the whole party. This was a .welcome substitute for our ordinary 
breakfast of bacon and tea on board. Such little incidents serve as new 
points of encouragement to travellers: the very shores of the river 
looked more delightful, after we put out, and went on our way that morn- 
ing. So much has a satisfied appetite to do with the aspect of things, 
both without, as well as within doors. 

The month of April had now fairly opened. The season was dehght- 
ful. Every rural sound was joyful — every sight novel, and a thousand 
circumstances united to make the voyage one of deep and unmixed 
interest. At this early season nothing in the vegetable kingdom gives 
a more striking and pleasing character to the forest, than the frequent 
occurrence of the celtis ohioensis, or Red Bud. It presents a perfect 
bouquet of red, or rose-coloured petals, while there is not a leaf exfoliated 
upon its branches, or in the entire forest. 

No incident, further threatening the well being of our party, occurred 
on the descent to Cincinnatti, where we landed in safety. But long before 
we reached this city, its outliers^ to use a geological phrase, were encoun- 
tered, in long lines and rafts of boards and pine timber, from, the sources 
of the Alleghany, and arks and flat-boats, from all imaginable places, 
with all imaginable names, north of its latitude. Next, steamboats lying 
along, the gravel or clay banks, then a steam-mill or two, puffing up 
its expended strength to the clouds, and finally, the dense mass of brick 
and wooden buildings, jutting down in rectangular streets — from high 
and exceedingly beautiful and commanding hills in the rear. All was 
suited to realize high expectations. Here was a city indeed, on the very 
spot from which St. Clair set out, on his ill-fated expedition in 1791, 
against the hostile Indians. Twenty-five years had served to transform 
the wilderness into scenes of cultivation and elegance, realizing, with no 
faint outlines, the gay creations of eastern fable, 



NO. III. 



Cincinnati had, at this time, (1818,) the appearance of a rapidly grow- 
ing city, which appeared to have, from some general causes, been suddenly 
checked in its growth. Whole rows of unfinished brick buildings had 
hev.n left by the workmen. Banks, and the offices of corporate and manu- 
facturing companies, were not unfrequently found shut. Nor did it re- 
qune long looking or much inquiry to learn that it had seen more pros- 
perous times. A branch bank of the U. S. then recently established there, 
was much and bitterly, but I know not how justly, spoken against. But if 
there was not the same life and air in all departments, that formerly eX' 
isted, there was abundant evidence of the existence of resources in the city 
and country, which must revive and push it onward in its career and 
growth, to rank second to no city v^est of the Alleghanies. This city owes 
its origin, I believe, to John Cleves Symes, father-in-law of the late Presi- 
dent Harrison, a Jerseyman by birth, who, in planning it, took Philadel- 
phia as his model. This has imparted a regularity to its streets, and 
squares, that visitors will at once recognize, as characteristic of its paren- 
tage. It stands on a heavy diluvial formation of various layers of clay, 
loam, sand, and gravel, disposed in two great plateaux, or first and second 
banks, the lowest of which is some thirty or forty feet above the common 
summer level of the Ohio. Yet this river has sometimes, but rarely, been 
known to surmount this barrier and invade the lowermost streets of the 
city. These diluvial beds have yielded some curious antiquarian relics, 
which lead the mind farther back, for their origin, than the Indian race. 
The most curious of these, if the facts are correctly reported to me, was 
the discovery of a small antique-shaped iron horse-shoe, found twenty-five 
feet below the surface in grading one of the streets, and the blunt end, 
or stump of a tree, at another locality, at the depth of ninety-four feet, to- 
gether with marks of the cut of an axe, and an iron wedge. I have 
had no means to verify these facts, but state them as credible, from the cor- 
roborative testimony afTorded them by other discoveries in the great geolo- 
gical basin of the west, examined by me, which denote human occupancy 
in America prior to the deposition of the last of the unconsolidated and 
eocene series. 

Our flotilla here broke up, and the persons who had formed its floating 

3 17 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



community separated, each to pursue his several way, and separate views. 
I made several acquaintances, whose names are recollected with pleasure. 
Dr. S. invited me to dine with him, introduced me to his young partner, 
Dr. Moorhead, and put me in the way of obtaining- eligible private lodg- 
ings. The three weeks I spent in this city were agreeably passed, varied 
as they were, by short excursions in the vicinity, including the Licking 
valley — a stream which comes in, on the Kentucky side, directly opposite 
the city. 1 went, one day, to see an experimental structure, built at the 
foot of the Walnut hills, with a very long pipe, or wooden chamber lead- 
ing up their sides, and rising above their tops. This was constructed by 
an ingenious person, at the expense of the late Gen. Lyttle, under the con- 
fident hope of his realizing a practical mechanical power from the rari- 
faction of atmospheric air. There was confessedly a poiver, but the diffi- 
culty was in multiplying this power, so as to render it practically appli- 
cable to the turning of machinery. The ratio of its increase, contended for, 
namely, the length of the pipe, appeared to me to be wholly fallacious, and 
the result proved it so. The thing was afterwards abandoned. There 
was an ancient mound here, which had not then been opened, but which 
has since yielded a curious ornamented stone, bearing a kind of arabesque 
figures, not dissimilar, in the style of drawing, to some of the rude sculp- 
tured figures of Yucatan, as recentl}^ brought to light by Mr. Stephens 
and Mr. Catherwood. 

I received, one day, a note from one of the directors of the White Lead 
Works, above the city, requesting me to visit it, and inspect in detail the 
processes of the manufacture. The latter I found to be defective in the 
mode of corroding the lead by the acetic acid ; there was also an unneces- 
sary complication and amount of machinery in bringing the oxide into 
the condition of a good pigment, and putting it into kegs, which had been 
very onerous in its cost, and was perpetually hable to get out of order. 

It was during my stay here that I first fek the effects of the western 
limestone waters rn deranging the stomach and bowels, and paid for my 
initiation into the habit, as all strangers must, by some days confinement. 
Dr. M. brought me about, and checked the disease, without any perma- 
nently injurious effects on my general health. 

When I was ready to proceed down the river, I went to seek a passage 
along the landing, but found no boat (steamboats were few and far be- 
tween in those days.) While pacing the beach, I met a man of gentle- 
manly appearance, who had experienced the same disappointment, and 
was desirous to go forward in his journey. He told me, that he had 
found a small row boat, well buik, and fitted with seats, which could be pur- 
chased for a reasonable sum ; that it would hold our baggage very well, 
and he thought we could make a pleasant trip in it as far as Louisville at 
the Falls, where the means of communication by steamboats were ample. 
On examining the boat, and a little inquiry, I acceded to this proposition, 



PfiRSONAli REMINISCENCES. 



19 



and I had no cause to regret it. This gentleman, whose name I have for- 
gotten, but which is somewhere among my papers, was a native of the 
city of Nancy, but a resident of Baltimore. He was, likp the city itself 
I believe, Franco-German, speaking the tvvo languages very well, and the 
English with peculiarities. He had a benevolent and honest countenance 
and social, agreeable manners, not frwo free, nor stiffly reserved ; and we 
performed the trip without accident, although we had a narrow escape one 
day from a sawyer, one of that insidious cast of these river pests, called in 
western parlance, a sleeping sawyer. It was now the month of May ; the 
atmosphere was mild and balmy, loaded with the perfumes of opening 
vegetation ; we took the oars and the helm alternately ; we had a constant 
succession of pretty views ; we put ashore to eat and to sleep, and the whole 
trip, which occupied some three or four days at the farthest, was perfectly 
delightful. 

We put ashore at Vevay, where the Swiss had then newly introduced 
the cultivation of the vine, to see the vineyards and the mode of cultivation. 
I have since witnessed this culture on the banks of the Rhine, and found 
it to be very similar. The vines are closely pruned and kept from becoming 
woody, and are trained to slender sticks, which, are arranged with the 
order of a garden bean-bed, which at the proper season, they much re- 
semble. We also tasted the wine, and found it poor. 

On the last day of the voyage, we took into our boat a young physician 
— a Hollander, recently arrived in the country, telling him, that by way 
of equivalent, we should expect him to take his turn at the oa,rs. He was 
a man of small stature — well formed, rather slovenly, yet pretty well 
dressed, with blue eyes, a florid face, and very voluble. Of all that he 
said, however, by far the most striking part, was his account of his skill 
in curing cancer. ' It was clear that he was an itinerating cancer-doctor. 
He said, amid other things, that he had received an invitation to go and 
cure the Governor of Indiana. We now had Indiana on our right hand, 
and Kentucky on our left. 

These are the principal incidents of the trip. We reached our destina- 
tion in safety, and landed on the superb natural sylvan walJ, or park, 
which is formed by the entrance of Beargrass Creek with the Ohio, just 
in front of, or a little above, Louisville. Here we sold our boat, took 
separate lodgings, and parted. I found in a day or two, that my friend 
from Nancy had a flourishing school for military tactics and the sword 
exercise, where, at his invitation, I went to visit him. . From this man, I 
learned, as we descended the Ohio, that the right and left banks of a river, 
in military science, are determined by the supposed position of a man 
standing at its head, and looking doiomvarcls. 

I found in the hme-stone rocks which form the bed of the river between 
the town and Corn Island, the cornu ammonis and some other species of 
organic remains ; and while I remained here, which was several weeks, 



20 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



I wrote a notice for one of the papers, of a locality of manganese on Sandy 
river, Ky., and others of some other objects of natural history in the 
west, which I perceived, by their being copied at the eastward, were well 
taken. It was my theory, that there was a general interest felt in the 
Atlantic States for information from the west, and this slight incident served 
to encourage me. 

The steamboat canal since constructed around the falls at this place, was 
then a project only spoken of, and is here alluded to for no higher purpose 
than to mention, that in its actual subsequent execution, we are informed 
the workmen came, at the depth of fourteen feet below the surface of the 
calcareous rock^ to a brick hearth, covered with what appeared to be the 
remains of charcoal and ashes. 

I took walks almost daily, on the fine promenade, shaded with lofty 
trees, festooned with their native vines, along the Beargrass Creek, which 
is the common place of landing for arks and boats. On one of these oc- 
casions, there came in a large ark, which had been freighted at Perryo- 
polis, on the Yioughagany, some thirty miles from Pittsburgh. The two 
proprietors were K. and K., Marylanders, both young men, or verging to 
middle life, who had clubbed together the necessary funds, and in the spirit 
of adventure, resolved on a trading voyage. There was something in the 
air and manners of both, which 1 thought I could trust in for an agree- 
able voyage, especially as they saw in me, not a rival in commerce of any 
kind, but a mere observer, — a character which I found, on more than one 
occasion, placed me on grounds of neutrality and advantage. Steamboats 
are the worst vehicles ever invented by the ingenuity of man to make ob- 
servations on a country, always excepting the last improvement on loco- 
tnotive rail-roads. To a naturalist, especially, they are really horrible. 
Not a tree or plant can be examined ; not a shell, or a rock certainly iden- 
tified. Hundreds of miles are passed in a few hours ; the effect of speed 
is to annihilate space ; town succeeds town, and object object, with such 
rapidity, that there is no distinct time left for observation or reflection ; and 
after the voyager has reached his point of destination, he is often seriously 
in doubt, what he has seen, and what he has not seen, and is as much puz- 
zled to put together the exact feature of the country's geography, as if he 
were called to re-adjust the broken incidents of a night's dream. I had 
yet another objection to this class of boats, at the era mentioned. Their 
boilers and machinery were not constructed with elaborate skill and 
strength ; their commanders were often intemperate, and a spirit of reckless 
rivalry existed, vhose results were not infrequently exhibited in exploded, 
sunk, or ground eJ boats, and the loss of lives. 

It is a regulation of law that pilots are provided for all boats, descending 
the falls — a descent, by the way, which can only be made on the Indiana 
side. When this officer came on board, the owners thought best to go by 
land to Shippingport. I had less at stake in its safety than they, yet felt a 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



21 



desire to witness this novel mode of descent; nor did the result disappoint 
me. Standing on the deck, or rather flat roof of the ark, the view was 
interesting and exciting. The first point at which the mass of water 
breaks was the principal point of danger, as there is here a powerful re- 
flux, or eddy current, on the right hand, while the main velocity of the 
current drives the vessel in a direction which, if not checked by the large 
sweeps, would inevitably swamp it. The object is to give this check, and 
shoot her into the eddy water. This was done. The excitement ceased 
in a few moments, and we passed the rest of the way with less exertion 
to the men, and got down the remainder of the falls in perfect safety. All 
this danger to the growing commerce of the west, is now remedied by the 
Louisville canal, which, by a work of but two miles in length, which holds 
the relative position of a string to the bow, connects the navigable waters 
above and below those falls, and permits all river craft of the largest bur- 
den to pass. 

It was about the falls of the Ohio, or a little above, that I first saw the 
gay and noisy paroquet, or little parrot of the west ; a gregarious bird,, 
whose showy green and yellow plumage makes it quite an object to be 
noticed and remembered in a passage on the lower Ohio. One of these 
birds, which had been wounded, was picked up out of the river, a few 
miles below the falls. It was evident, from the occurrence of this species,, 
and other features in the natural history of the country, that we were now 
making a rapid southing. The red-bud, the papaw, the buckeye, and the 
cucumber tree, had all introduced themselves to notice, among the forest 
species, below Pittsburgh ; although they are all, I think, actually known 
to extend a little north of that latitude ; and we now soon had added to the 
catalogue, the pecan and cypress, and the cane, with the constant attendant 
of the latter, the green briar. I had no opportunity to examine the pecaUy / 
until we reached the mouth of the Wabash and Shawneetown, where I / 
went on a shooting excursion with a young Kentuckian, who gave me \ 
the first practical exhibition of bringing down single pigeons and other \ 
small game with the rifle, by generally striking the head or neck only. | 
I had heard of this kind of shooting before, and witnessed some capital \ 
still shots, but here was a demonstration of it, in brush and brier — catching | 
a sight as best one could. The ball used on these occasions was about 1 
the size of a large buckshot. 

Shavvrneetown is a word which brings to mind one of the North Ame- 
rican tribes, who, between 1632 and the present time, figure as one of the 
frontier actors in our history. They have, in this time, with the ubiquity 
of one of their own genii, skipped over half America. They were once, cer- 
tainly dwellers on the Savannah, if not, at a still earlier day, on the Suanee, in 
Florida ; then fled north, a part coming down the Kentucky river, and a 
part fleeing to the Delaware, and thence west. They are now on the 
Konga, west of the Missouri. So much for the association of names. 



22 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



History never remembers any thing which she can possibly forget, and I 
found at least, one high-feeling personage here, who did not like the man- 
ner in which I associated the modern town with reminiscences of the 
savages. "Why, sir," said he, as we walked the deck of the ark, floating 
down the Ohio, and getting nearer the place every moment, " we have a 
bank there, and a court house ; it is the seat of justice for Gallatin county ; 
— and a printing press is about to be established ; — it is a very thriving 
place, and it bids fair to remain second to none below the Wabash." " All 
this, truly," I responded, willing to reprove pride in an easy way, " is a great 
improvement on the wigwam and the council-fire, and wampum coin-beads." 
It is sometimes better to smile than argue, and I found it so on the present 
occasion. I did not wish to tread on the toes of rising greatness, or pour 
upon a love of home and locality, honorable and praise-worthy in my 
fellow traveller, the chilHng influence of cold historical facts. My allu- 
sions were the mere effect of the association of ideas, resulting from 
names. If the residents of Shawneptown do not like to be associated with 
the native race, who would not have exchanged a good bow and arrows 
for all the court houses in Christendom, they should bestow upon the 
place some epithet which may sever the tia- 



NO. IV. 



After stopping a day or more at Shawneetown, and reconnoitering its 
vicinity, L proceeded to the mouth of the Cumberland, and from thence, 
after many days detention at that point waiting for a boat, to the mouth of 
the Ohio. I found this to be a highly interesting section of the river, from 
its great expanse and its fine water prospects. The picturesque calcareous 
cliffs on the west banks, display a novel and attractive line of river scenery. 
The Ohio had, from its commencement, well sustained the propriety of its 
ancient appellation of the Beautiful River ; but it here assumed something 
more than beautiful — it was majestic. Let it be borne in mind that this 
stream, in the course of some seven or eight hundred miles flow from 
Pittsburg to Shawneetown, had been swelled on the right and left hand by 
the Scioto, the Muskingum, the Kentucky, the Miami, Green River, Wa- 
bash, and other rivers of scarcely inferior size. It is still further aug- 
mented, from the left bank, with those noble tributaries, the Cumberland 
and Tennessee, which bring in the gathered drain of the middle ranges 
of the Alleghanies. It is below Shawneetown, too, that the cliffs of the 
Cave-in-Rock-Coast present themselves on the west shore — with their as- 
sociations of the early robber-era which has been commemorated by the 
pen of fiction of Charles Brockden Brown. These cliffs are cavernous^ 
and assume varied forms. They rise in bold elevations, which bear the 
general name of the Knobs, but which are well worthy of the name of moun- 
tains. Distinct from the interest they have by casting their castle-like 
shadows, at sunset, in the pure broad stream, they constitute a kind 
of Derbyshire in their fine purple spars, and crystalized galena and other 
mineralogical attractions. I was told that a German of the name of Storch, 
who pretended to occult knowledge, had, years before, led money and 
mineral diggers about these Knobs, and that he was the discoverer of the 
fine fluates of lime found here. 

One can hardly pass these broken eminences, with the knowledge that 
they tally in their calcareous structure and position with the rock forma- 
tion of the Missouri state border, lying immediately west of them, without 
regarding them as the apparent monuments of some ancient geological 
change, which affected a very wide space of country north of their posi- 
tion. A barrier of this nature, which should link the Tennessee and Mis- 

23 



PERSONAL REMiisriscEisrdfis. 



souri coasts, at Grand Tower, would have converted into an inland sea 
the principal area of the present states of Illinois, Indiana, and Southern 
Ohio. The line of separation in this latitude is not great. It constitutes 
the narrowest point between the opposing rock formations of the east and 
west shores, so far as the latter rise through and above the soil. 

I was still in a floating Monongahela ark as we approached this coast 
of cliffs. The day was one of the mildest of the month of June, and the 
surface of the water was so still and calm that it presented the appearance 
of a perfect mirror. Our captain ordered alongside the skiff, which served 
as his jolly boat, and directed the men to land me at the Great Cave. Its 
wide and yawning mouth gave expectations, however, which were not 
realized. It closes rapidly as it is pursued into the rock, and never could 
have afforded a safe shelter for gangs of robbers whose haunts were 
known. Tradition states, on this point, that its mouth was formerly closed 
and hid by trees and foliage, by which means the unsuspecting voyagers 
with their upward freight were wajdaid. We overtook the slowly float- 
ing ark before it had reached Hurricane Island, and the next land we 
made was at Smithfield, at the mouth of the Cumberland. While here, 
several discharged Tennessee militiamen, or volunteers from the still un- 
finished Indian war in the south, landed on their way home. They were 
equipped after the fashion of western hunters, with hunting shirts and 
rifles, and took a manifest pride in declaring that they had fought under 
" old Hickory" — a term wliich has, since that era, become familiar to the 
civilized world. I here first saw that singiilar excrescence in the vegeta- 
ble kingdom called cypress knees. The point of land between the 
mouth of the Cumberland and Ohio, was a noted locality of the cypress 
tree. This tree puts up from its roots a blunt cone, of various size and 
height, which resembles a sugar loaf. It is smooth, and without limb or 
foliage. An ordinary cone or knee would measure eight inches in diam- 
eter, and thirty inches high. It would seem like an abortive effort of the 
tree to put up another growth. The paroquet was exceedingly abundant 
at this place, along the shores, and in the woods. They told me that this 
bird rested by hooking its upper mandible to a limb. I made several 
shooting excursions into the neighbouring forests, and remember that I 
claimed, in addition to smaller trophies of these daily rambles, a shrike 
and a hystrix. 

At length a keel boat came in from the Illinois Saline, commanded by 
a Captain Ensminger — an Americo-German — a bold, frank man, very 
intelligent of things relating to river navigation. With him I took passage 
for St. Louis, in Missouri, and we were soon under weigh, by the force 
of oars, for the mouth of the Ohio. We stopped a short time at a new 
hamlet on the Illinois shore, v^rhich had been laid out by some speculators 
of Cincinnati, but was remarkable for nothing but its name. It was 
called, by a kind of bathos in nomenclature, " America." I observed on 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



25 



the shores of the river at this place, a very recent formation of pudding- 
stone, or rather a local stratum of indurated pebbles and clay, in which 
the cementing ingredient was the oxyde of iron. Chalybeate waters per- 
colated over and amongst this mass. This was the last glimpse of consol- 
idated matter. All below, and indeed far above, was alluvial, or of recent 
origin. Nothing could exceed the fertile character of the soil, or its rank 
vegetation and forest growth, as we approached the point of junction ; but 
it was a region subject to periodical overflows, the eras of which were very 
distinctly marked by tufts and bunches of grass, limbs, and other floating 
matter which had been lodged and left in the forks and branches of trees, 
now fifteen or twenty feet above our heads. It was now the first day of 
July, and I felt the most intense interest as we approached and came to the 
point of confluence. I had followed the Ohio, in all its sinuosities, a thou- 
sand miles. I had spent more than three months in its beautiful and va- 
ried valley ; and I had something of the attachment of an old friend for its 
noble volume, and did not well like to see it about to be lost in the mighty 
Mississippi. Broad and ample as it was, however, bringing in the whole 
congregated drain of the western slopes of the Alleghanies and the table 
lands of the Great Lakes, the contest was soon decided. The stream had, 
at that season, sunk down to its summer level, and exhibited a transparent 
blue volume. The Mississippi, on the contrary, was swelled by the melt- 
ing snows of the Rocky Mountains, and was in its vernal flood. Coming 
in at rather an acute angle, it does not immediately arrest the former, but 
throws its waters along the Tennessee shores. It runs with prodigious 
velocity. Its waters are thick, turbid, and replete with mingled and float- 
ing masses of sand and other comminuted rock and floating vegetation, 
trees, and rubbish. For miles the line of separation between the Ohio and 
Mississippi waters was visible by its colour ; but long before it reaches the 
Iron Banks, the modern site of Memphis — the Father of Waters, as it 
is poetically, not literally, called — had prevailed, and held on its way to 
make new conquests of the St. Francis, the White, the Arkansas, and 
other noble streams. 

Our captain, akhough he had no lack of self-confidence, did not seem to 
be in haste to grapple with this new foe, by plunging at once into the tur- 
bid stream, but determined to try it next morning. This left me, a good 
part of the day, in a position where there was not much to reward inquiry. 
I fished awhile from the boat's side, but was rewarded with nothing 
besides a gar, a kind of sword, or rather billed fish, which appears to be 
provided with this appendage to stir up its food or prey from a muddy 
bottom. Its scales and skin are nearly as hard and compact as a shark's, 
and its flesh is equally valueless. It is at this point that the town of Cairo 
has since been located. There were, at the period mentioned, several 
arks and flat-boats lying on the higher banks, where they had been moored 
in high water. These now served as dwellings, and by cutting doors in 



26 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



their sides they formed rude groceries and provision stores. Whatever 
else, however, was to be seen at so low and nascent a point, the mosquito, 
as night came on, soon convinced us that he was the true magnate of those 
dominions. 

The next morning at an early hour our stout-hearted commander put 
his boatmen in motion, and turned his keel into the torrent ; but such was 
the velocity of the water, and its opacity and thick turbidness, that I 
thought we should have been precipitated down stream, and hurled against 
sunken logs. Those who have ascended this stream in the modern era 
of steamboats, know nothing of these difficulties. It seemed impossible to 
stem the current. A new mode of navigation, to me at least, was to be 
tried, and it was evidently one which the best practised and stoutest-hearted 
men by no means relished. These boats are furnished with a plank walk 
on each side, on which slats are nailed to give a foothold to the men. 
Each man has a pole of ash wood about 16 feet long, with a wooden knob 
at the hea.d to rest against the shoulder, and a blunt point at the other end 
shod with iron. Planting these upon the bottom near shore, with their 
heads facing down stream, the men bend all their force upon them, pro- 
pelling the boat by their feet in the contrary direction. This is a very 
laborious and slow mode of ascent, which has now been entirely super- 
seded on the main rivers by the use of steam. 

Such is the fury and velocity of the current, that it threatens at every 
freshet to tear down and burst asunder its banks, and run lawless through 
the country. Often whole islands are swept away in a short time. We 
had an instance of this one night, when the island against which we were 
moored, began to tumble into the channel, threatening to overwhelm us by 
the falling earth and the recoil of the waves, and we got away to the main 
shore with much effort, for night was set in, the current furious, and the 
shore to which we were going entirely unknown. To have struck a 
sunken log on such a traverse, under such circumstances, must have been 
fatal. We got at length upon a firm shore, where we moored and turned 
in Sit a late hour : but a curious cause of alarm again roused us. Some 
animal had made its appearance on the margin of the stream, not far below 
us, which in the dimness of the night appeared to be a bear. AH who 
had arms, got them, and there was quite a bustle and no little excitement 
among the cabin passengers. The most knowing pronounced it to be a 
white bear. It produced a snorting sound resembling it. It seemed furi- 
ous. Both white and. furious it certainly was, but after much delay, com- 
mendable caution, and no want of the display of courage, it turned out to 
be a large wounded hog, which had been shot in the snout and head, and 
came to allay its fevered and festered flesh, by night, in the waters of the 
Mississippi. 

To stem the curr6!it along this portion of the river required almost 
superhuman power. Often not more than a few njiles can be made with 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



27 



a. hard day's exertions. We went the first day six miles, the second about 
the same distance, and the third eight miles, which brought us to the first 
cultivated land along a low di^'-'ct of the west shore, called the Tyewapety 
Bottom ^ There were six or eight small farms at this spot ; the land rich, 
and said to be quite well adapted for corn, flax, hemp, and tobacco. I ob- 
served here the papaw. The next day we ascended but three miles and 
stopped, the crew being found too weak to proceed. While moored to the 
bank, we were passed by several boats destin'^ for St. Louis, which were 
loaded with pine boards and plank from Ok i, on the sources of the Al- 
leghany. They told us that sixty dollars }>» / thousand feet could be ob- 
tained for them. 

Additional men having been hired, we went forward the next day to a 
point which is called the Little Chain of Rocks, where, from sickness in 
some of the hands, another halt became necessary. It is at this point that 
the firm cherty clay, or diluvial soil of the Missouri shore, first presents 
itself on the banks of the river. This soil is of a sterile and mineral cha- 
racter. I noticed beneath the first elevated point of it, near the river's edge, 
a locality of white compact earth, which is called chalk, and is actually 
used as such by mechanics. On giving a specimen of it, after my return 
to New York in 1819, to Mr. John Griscom, he found it completely desti- 
tute of carbonic acid ; it appears to be a condition of alumine or nearly 
pure clay. Large masses of pudding-stone, disrupted from their original 
position, were seen lying along the shore at this locality, being similar in 
their character to that seen on approaching the mouth of the Ohio. 

We ascended the river this day ten miles, and the next five miles, whiih 
brought us to Cape Girardeau, at the estimated distance of fifty miles above 
the mouth of the Ohio. At this place I was received with attention by one 
of the principal residents, who, on learning that my object was to examine 
the natural history of the country, invited me to his house. In rambling 
the vicinity, they showed me a somewhat extra but dilapidated and 
deserted house, which had been built by one Loramee, a Spanish trader, 
who has left his name on one of the branches of the river St. Mary's of 
Indiana. This old fabric excited a strong interest in my mind as I walked 
through its open doors and deserted rooms, by a popular story, how true I 
know not, that the occupant had been both a rapacious and cruel man, 
siding with the Indians in the hostilities against our western people ; and 
that he had, on one occasion, taken a female captive, and with his own 
hands cut ofi" her breasts. 

The journey from Cape Girardeau to St. Louis occupied nineteen days, 
and was fraught with scenes and incidents of interest, which I should de- 
tail with pleasure were it compatible with my limits. Indeed, every day's 
voyage along this varied and picturesque shore presented objects of remark, 
which both commended themselves to my taste, and which the slow mode 
of ascent gave me full means to improve. This might be said particularly 



28 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



of its geological structure and its mineralogical productions — themes which 
were then fresh and new, but which have lost much of their attractions by 
the progress which natural science has made in the country during six 
and twenty years. To these topics it is the less necessary to revert, as 
they were embraced in the results of my tour, given in my " View of the 
MinesJ^ published in 1819. 

The article improperly called pumice, which floats down the Missouri 
during its floods, from the burning coal banks in the Black Hills, I first 
picked up on the shore in the ascent above Cape Girardeau, and it gave 
me an intimation that the waters had commenced falling. We came to, 
the same night, at a well known fountain, called the Moccasin Spring, a 
copious and fine spring of crystal water, which issues from an elongated 
orifice in the limestone rock. 

While lying at the mouth of the river Obrazo, where we were detained 
on account of hands, several boats touched at the place, carrying emigrants 
from Vermont and New York, whose destination was the most westerly 
settlements on the Missouri. At higher points in the ascent we encoun- 
tered emigrants from Maine, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, 
and Kentucky, which denotes the wide range of the spirit of migration at 
the era. The ends of the Union seemed to be brought together by this 
general movement towards the west. It was not uncommon to find rep- 
resentatives from a great number of the states in these accidental meetings ; 
they were always of a social and highly friendly character, and the effect 
of such a system of intercommunication and residence, from districts widely 
separated, could not but be highly auspicious in promoting uniformity of 
manners and opinions, and assimilating customs, dress, and language. 
If long continued it must destroy provincialisms, and do much to annihilate 
local prejudices. 

Every one who has ascended this stream will recollect the isolated cliff, 
standing in its waters, call^ Grand Tower, with the corresponding de- 
velopments of the coast on the contiguous shores, which tell the traveller 
plainly enough that here is the site of some ancient disruptive process in 
the physical history of the valley The current has an increased velocity 
in sweeping around this obstacle ; and we found, as the waters fell, that 
there were numerous eddies and strong jets or currents along this precipi- 
tous coast, which it required extra force to surmount. We saw one day a 
number of pelicans standing on a sand bar. The wild turkey and quail 
were daily encountered on shore. 

Our approach to St. Genevieve was preceded by a sight of one of those 
characteristic features in all the early French settlements in this quarter — 
the great public field extending several miles, five miles I think, along the 
banks of the river. St. Genevieve itself lies about a mile from the river, 
and is concealed by irregularities in the surface. It is a highly charac- 
teristic antique French town, and reminds one strongly of the style and 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



29 



manner of building of the provincial villages and towns of the parent 
country, as still existing. Three miles above this place we came to a noted 
point of crossing called the Little Rock Ferry ; a spot worthy of note at 
ithat time as the residence of a very aged Frenchman, called Le Breton. 
Statements which are believed to be true, made him 109 years old. From 
his own account he was at the seige of Bergen-op-zoom, in Flanders; at 
the seige of Louisburg; at the building of Fort Chartres, in Illinois ; and 
at Braddock's defeat. After his discharge, he discovered those extensive 
lead mines in Washington county, about forty miles west of the river, 
which still bear his name. 

The coast between St. Genevieve and Herculaneum is almost one con- 
tinuous cliff of precipitous rocks, which are broken through chiefly at the 
points where rivers and streams discharge. Herculaneum itself is seated 
on one of these limited areas, hemmed in by cliffs, which, in this case, 
were rendered stiil more picturesque by their elevated shot towers. I 
landed at this place about noon of my twenty-second day's ascent, and find- 
ing it a convenient avenue to the mine district, determined to leave my 
baggage at a hotel till my return from St. Louis, and pursue the rest of the 
journey to that place on foot. It was at this point that I was introduced to 
Mr. Austin, the elder, who warmly approved my plan of exploring the 
mines, and offered every facility in his power to further it. Mr. Austin 
was, he informed me at a subsequent stage of our acquaintance, a native 
(Of Connecticut. He had gone early into Virginia and settled at Richmondi 
where his eldest son was born, and afterwards removed to Wythe county. 
In 1778 he ivent into Upper Louisiana, enduring severe sufferings and 
the risk of life, in crossing the country by way of Vincennes to St. liouis, 
"vhere he wa.* 5 well received by the Spanish local governor. He obtained 
a grant of la nd in the present area of Washington county, the principal 
seat of the ol ier mines. About the time I went to Missouri, or soon after 
it, he resolve* i to visit San Antonio, in Texas, with a view of introducing 
a colony of A mericans into that quarter. This plan he carried into execu- 
tion, I think. , in 1820, and returned with an ample grant; but he did not 
iive to carry its stipulations into effect, having died suddenly after his 
return, at the house of his daughter, Mrs, Bryant, at Hazel Run. 

Mr. Austin was a man of great zeal and fervour of imagination, and en- 
tered very wa: rmly into all his plans and views, whatever they were. He 
was hospitable , frank, intelligent, and it is with feelings of unmixed plea- 
sure, that I rev< 3rt to my acquaintance with him, no less than with his talented 
son, Stephen, ; and the excellent, benign, and lady-like Mrs. Austin, and 
other members of this intelligent family. 



NO. V. 

Herculaneum had nothing- in common with its sombre Italian proto- 
type, which has been dug out of dust and ashes in modern times, but its 
name. Instead of buried palaces and ruins of a luxurious age of marble, 
bronze and silver, most of the houses were built of squared oak logs, and 
had bulky old fashioned chimneys, built outside with a kind of castelated 
air, as they are seen in the old French and Dutch settlements in Canada, 
and along the vallies of the Hudson and Mohawk. The arts of painting 
and gilding and cornices, had not yet extended their empire here. Mr. 
Austin's residence, was the only exception to this remark, I remember. 
The Courts of Justice were content to hold their sessions in one of the 
oaken timber buildings named ; the county jail had a marvellous re- 
semblance to an ample smoke-house, and my kind host, Ellis, who was a na 
tive of South Carolina, was content to serve up substantial and good cheer 
in articles, not exhumed from a city buried in volcanic ashes, but in plain 
fabrics of Staffordshire and Birmingham. In addition to the host-like and 
agreeable resort, which travellers unexpectedly found at his hands, in a 
mansion whose exterior gave no such signs, he presided over the depart- 
ment of a public ferry, established at this place, across the wild and fluc- 
tuating Mississippi; and had he kept note book, he could have given 
account of many a one, from other lands, with golden hopes of the far 
west, whom he had safely conducted, against the most adverse floods, to 
the Missouri shore. I found a few old books at his house, which showed ' 
that there had been readers in his family, and which helped to while 
away moments, which every traveller will find on his hands. 

I have intimated that there was nothing in the way of the antique, in 
Herculaneum, but its name. To this I might add, that there was no ex- 
ception, unless it be found in the impressions of objects, in the structure 
of the rocks, in this quarter, denoting a prior pige of existence. I was 
shown an impression, in the surface of a block of limestone, quarried here, 
which was thought to resemble a man's foot. Jt did not appear to me to 
bear this similitude, but was rather to be referred to some organic extinct 
forms, which are not yet well understood. 

Having passed a couple of days here, I set out early o)ie moiningj 

30. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



31 



oh ibot, for ^t. Louis, accompanied by two young men from Pennsylvania, 
with whom I had become acquainted on prior parts of my route. They 
had come with an adventure of merchandize from the waters of the 
Yioughagany, and were desirous of seeing the (then) capitol of the Terri- 
tory. Nothing untoward occurred, until we reached and crossed the 
river Merrimack, where night overtook us, and set in with intense dark- 
ness, just as we reached the opposite shore. There was but one house in 
the vicinity ; and not distant more than a mile, but such was the intensity 
of the darkness, owing to clouds and a gathering storm, that we lost the 
road, wandered in the woods for some hours, during which the rain com- 
menced, and were at length directed to the house we sought, by the faint 
and occasional tinkling of a cow bell. 

We travelled the next morning twelve miles, to breakfast at the antique 
6oking village of Carondalet. The route lies over an elevated tract of 
uplands, eligibly situated on the right bank of the Mississippi, in which 
a growth of wild prairie grass and flowers, filled up the broad spaces be- 
tween the trees. There was no habitation visible on the route — a stand- 
ing spring under a ledge of rocks, about half way, was the only spot 
where we could get a drop of water to allay our thirst — for it was a hot 
August day. We encountered several deer, and from the frequent occur- 
rence of their tracks, deemed such an occurrence to be common. It is on 
this elevated and airy tract, that the site of Jefferson Barracks, has since 
been judiciously established by the government. 

Beyond Carondalet, the country has the appearance of a grown-up 
heath. It is a bushy uninviting tract, without mature forest trees. The 
most interesting feature we saw, consisted of a number of regular depres- 
sions, or cup-shaped concavities in the soil, caused by the passage of 
springs over a clay basis, upon which there is deposited a heavy diluvial 
stratum of sand, mixed earth and pebbles. Within about three miles of the 
city, this heathy and desolate tract began to assume a cultivated character ; 
dwellings and gardens soon succeeded, and we found ourselves, by almost 
imperceptible grades, introduced into the city, which we reached about 
four o'clock m the afternoon. On entering its ancient Spanish barriers, 
we noticed one of the old stone towers, or defences, which constituted a 
part of the enclosure. This town, I afterwards learned, had been r^u- 
larly walled and fortified, during the possession of the country by the 
Spanish crown. As soon as I had taken lodgings, I called on R. Petti- 
bone Esq., a friend formerly of Vernon, in western N. Y. who had estab- 
hshed himself in this central city of the west, in the practice of the law; 
he was not in, at the moment, but his family received me with cordiality. 
He returned my visit in the evening, and insisted on my taking up my 
quarters at his house. The time that I spent here, was devoted to the 
most prominent objects which the town and its vicinity presented to in- 
terest a stranger, such as the private museum of the late Gen. Wm. Clark, 



32 



PERSONAL REMIiriSCENCES. 



containmgf many articles of rich and valuable Indian costume ; the largo 
natural mounds above the city, and the character of the rock formation 
along the shores of the river, which was seiid to have had the impressions 
of human feet, on its original surface. The latter I did not see till the 
summer of 1821, when the block of stone containing them was examined 
in Mr. Rapp's garden, at Harmony, on the Wabash. 

My inclinations having led me, at this time, to visit the extensive lead 
mines, southwest of this city, on the waters of the Merrimack, I lost no 
time in retracing my way to Herculaneum, by descending the Mississippi 

When I was prepared to descend the river, the two gentlemen who 
had been my travelling companions, on the journey up, had completed 
the business of their adventure, and offered me a seat, in a small boat, 
under their control. It was late in the afternoon of the day that this 
arrangement was proposed, and it was dusk before we embarked ; but it 
was thought the village of Cahokia, some five or six miles below, could 
be reached in good season. A humid and misty atmosphere rendered the 
night quite dark, and we soon found ourselves afloat on the broad current 
of the stream, without knowing our position, for it was too intensely dark 
to descry the outlines of either shore. Being in a light open boat, we 
were not only in some peril, from running foul of drifting trees, but it 
became disagreeably cold. On putting in for the Illinois shore, a low 
sandy bar, or shoal was made, but one of my companions who had landed 
came running back with an account of a bear and her cub, which caused 
us to push on about a mile further, where we passed the night, without 
beds or fire. Daylight disclosed to us the fact that we had passed Caho 
kia ; we then crossed over to the Missouri shore, and having taken break 
fast at Carondalet, continued the voyage, without any further misadveii 
ture, and reached Herculaneum at noon. 

I lost no time in preparing to visit the mines, and having made arrang* 
ments for my baggage to follow, set out on foot for Potosi. The first da) 
I proceeded eighteen miles, and reached Steeples, at the head of th« 
Zwoshau, or Joachim river, at an early hour. The day was excessively 
hot, and the road lay for the greater part of the distance, over a ridge of 
land, which afforded no water, and very little shelter from the sun's rays. 
I met not a solitary individual on the route, and with the exception of the 
small swift footed lizard, common to the way side, and a single wild turkey, 
nothing in the animal kingdom. The antlers of the deer frequently seen 
above the grass, denoted it however to abound in that animal. I was con- 
strained while passing this dry tract, to allay my thirst at a pool, in a rut, 
not, however, without having disconcerted a wild turkey, which had come 
apparently for the same purpose. 

Next day I crossed the valley of Grand or Big river, as it is commonly 
called, and at the distance of twelve miles from the Joachim, I entered the 
mining village of Shibboleth — ^the feudal seat, so to say, of the noted 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



John Smith T." of whose singularities rumour had already apprized me. 
Here was a novel scene. Carts passing with loads of ore — smelting fur 
naces, and fixtures, and the half-hunter, half-farmer costumes of the group 
of men who were congregated about the principal store, told me very 
plainly, that I was now in the mining region. Lead digging and dis- 
covering, and the singular hap-hazards of men who had suddenly got rich 
by finding rich beds of ore, and suddenly got poor by some folly or extra- 
vagance, gave a strong colouring to the whole tone of conversation at this 
spot, which was carried on neither in the mildest or most unobtrusive way : 
quite a vocabulary of new technical words burst upon me, of which it was 
necessary to get the correct import. I had before heard of the pretty 
term, " mineral blossom," as the local name for radiated quartz, but here 
were tiff (sulphate of barytas), glass-tiff (calcareous spar), " mineral sign," 
and a dozen other words, to be found in no books. At the head of these 
new terms stood the popular word "mineral," which invariably meant 
galena, and nothing else. To hunt mineral, to dig mineral, and to smelt 
mineral, were so many operations connected with the reduction of the 
ores of galena. 

I soon found the group of men about the village store, was a company 
of militia, and that I was in the midst of what New Yorkers call a " train- 
ing," which explained the hunter aspect I had noticed. They were 
armed with rifles, and dressed in their every day leather or cotton hunting 
shirts. The officers were not distinguished from the men, either because 
swords were not easily procured, or more probably, because they did not 
wish to appear with so inefficient and useless an arm. " Food for powder," 
was the first term that occurred to me on first surveying this group of men, 
but nothing could have been more inapposite ; for although like " lean 
Jack's" men, they had but little skill in standing in a right line, never 
were men better skilled for personal combat, — from the specimens given, I 
believe there was hardly a man present, who could not drive a bullet into 
the size of a dollar at a hundred yards. No man was better skilled in this 
art, either with rifle or pistol, than the Don of the village, the said John 
Smith T., or his brother, called " the Major," neither of whom travelled, 
or eat, or slept, as I afterwards witnessed, without their arms. During 
my subsequent rambles in the mine country, I have sat at the same table, 
slept in the same room, and enjoyed the conversation of one or tlie other, 
and can say, that their extraordinary habit of going fully armed, was 
united in both with courteous manners, honourable sentiments, and high 
chivalric notions of personal independence ; and I had occasion to notice, 
that it was none but their personal enemies, or opponents in business, that 
dealt in vituperation against them, John Smith T. was doubtless a man 
of singular and capricious humours, and a most fiery spirit, when aroused ; 
of which scores of anecdotes are afloat. He was at variance with several 
of his most conspicuous neighbours, and, if he be likened to the lion of 



34 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

the forest, it will be perfectly just to add, that most of the le^er animals 
stood in fear of him. 

My stop here had consumed some time, but thinking I could still reach 
Mine a Burton^ I pushed on, hut had only proceeded a couple of miles 
when I was hastily compelled to seek shelter from an impending shower. 
As it was late, and the storm continued, I remained at a farm house, at 
Old Mines during the night. They gave me a supper of rich fresh 
milk and fine corn hread. In the morning, a walk of three miles brought 
me to Potosi, where I took lodgings at Mr. Ficklin's, proprietor of the 
principal inn of the place. Mr. F. was a native of Kentucky, a man of 
open frank manners, and most kind hefievolent feelings, who had seen 
much of frontier life, had lived a number of years in Missouri, and now 
at a rather advanced period of life, possessed a fund of local knowledge 
and experience, the communication of which rendered the time I spent at 
his house both profitable and pleasing. 

I reached Potosi on the second of August. The next day was the day 
of the county election*, which brought together the principal miners and 
agricultural gentlemen of the region, and gave me a favourable oppor- 
tunity of forming acquaintance, and making known the object of my visit. 
I was particularly indebted to the civilities of Stephen F. Austin, Esq. 
for these introductions. During my stay in the country he interested 
himself in my success, omitted no opportunity of furthering my views, and 
extending my acquaintance with the geological features and resources of 
the country. He offered me an apartment in the old family mansion of 
Durham Hall, for the reception and accumulation of my collections. 
Mr. Bates and sons, Mr. Jones and sons, Mr. Perry and brothers, Mr. 
Elliot, Mr. Brickey, Mr. Honey and others, seconded these civilities. In- 
deed the friendly and obliging disposition I uniformly met with, from the 
inhabitants of the mines, and the mine country generally, is indelibly im- 
pressed on my memory. 

I was now at the capital of the mines, and in a position most favour- 
able for obtaining true information of their character and value. 
Three months devoted to this object left scarcely a nook of the country 
which I had not either personally explored, or obtained authentic 
information of I found forty-five principal mines, or mineral diggings 
as some of them are called, within a circumference of less than forty 
miles. Potosi, and its vicinity yielded annually about three millions 
of pounds of lead, and furnished employment to the estimated num- 
ber, of eleven to twelve hundred hands. The business was however de- 
pressed, like almost every other branch of domestic arts or industry, 
after the peace of 1814, owing to the great influx and low prices of 

* About 70 votes were polled in the town of Potosi. Mr. Austin, the younger, WM 
returned by the county to the Territorial Legislature. 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



35 



foreign products, and the general derangement of currency and credit. 
Prepared ore, delivered at the furnaces, was worth two dollars per cwt., 
paid chiefly in merchandize. Pig lead sold at four dollars, at the mines ; 
and but half a dollar higher on the banks of the Mississippi, and was 
quoted at seven dollars in the Atlantic cities. Judged from these data, 
ihere appeared no adequate cause for the alleged depression ; for in addi- 
tion to the ordinary merchant's profit, in the disposition of his stock to the 
operative miner or digger of ore, a profit of one cent and a half per pound 
was left, over and above the cost of transportation to an eastern market ; 
besides, the difference in exchange, between the south western and eastern 
cities. And it was evident, from a view of the whole subject, that the 
business could not only be profitably pursued, with economical arrange- 
ments, but that the public domain, upon which most of the mines are 
seated, might be made to yield a revenue to the treasury, at least equal to 
the amount of this article required for the national consumption, over the 
expenses, the superintendence and management. Besides which, there 
was great room for improved and economical modes of mining; and there 
was hardly one of the manipulations, from the making of a common drill 
or pick, to the erection of a smelting furnace, which did not admit of salu- 
tary changes for the better. The recovery of the mere waste lead, in its 
sublimated form, around the open log furnaces of the country, promised to 
add a valuable item to the profit of the business. The most wasteful, hurried, 
and slovenly of all systems is pursued in exploring and raising the ore, by 
v\'hich the surface of the country is riddled with pit holes, in the most 
random manner ; the loose and scattered deposits in the soil hastily gathered 
up, and the real lead and veins of metal left, in very many cases, untouched. 
Thousands of square acres of land were thus partially rifled of their 
riches, and spoiled, and condemned, without being exhausted. By having 
no scientific knowledge of mineral veins and geological structure, as prac- 
tically adopted in Europe, all rule in the process of mining and raising 
the ore had degenerated into mere guess work, and thousands of dollars 
had been wasted, in some places, where the application of some of the 
plainest mining principles, would not have warranted the removal of a 
shovel full of earth. In short, there was here observed, a blending of the 
miner and farmer character. Almost every farmer was a miner. Plan- 
ters who had slaves, employed them part of the year in mining; and 
every miner, to some extent was a farmer. Because the ore found in the 
clay beds did not occur in east and west, or north and south lines, or its 
rules of deposition had not been determined by careful observation, all 
success in the exploration was supposed to be the result of chance. And 
whoever surveys the mineral counties of Missouri, wiU be ready to con- 
clude, that more labour has been thrown away in the helter-skeker sys- 
tem of digging, than was ever applied to well directed or profitable 



36 



1»ERS0NAL REMINISCENCES 



mining. Had an absolute monarch called for this vast amount of labour 
from his people to build some monument, he would have been declared 
the greatest tyrant. Indeed, I know of no instance in America, of the 
misapplication of so great an amount of free labour — labour cheerfully- 
bestowed, and thrown away without a regret. For the losers in mining, 
like the adventurers in a lottery, have no one to blame but themselves. 

It appeared to me that a statement of the actual condition of the mines, 
would be received with attention at Washington, and that a system for the 
better management of them could not but be approved, were it properly 
brought forward. I determined to make the attempt. It did not, how- 
ever, appear to me, that nature had limited the deposits of ore to one spe- 
cies, or to so limited an area, and I sought means to extend my personal 
examinations farther west and south. To bring this about, and to collect 
the necessary information to base statements on, in a manner correspondent 
to my wishes, required time, and a systematic mode of recording facts. 

To this object, in connexion with the natural history of the country, I 
devoted the remainder of the year, and a part of the following year. I 
soon found, after reaching the mines, that I had many coadjutors in the 
business of collecting specimens, in the common miners, some of whom 
were in the habit of laying aside for me, any thing they found, in their 
pits and leads, which assumed a new or curious character. Inquiries and 
applications relative to the mineralogy and structure of the country were 
made, verbally and by letter, from many quarters. I established my resi- 
dence at Potosi, but made excursions, from time to time, in various direc- 
tions. Some of these excursions were fruitful of incidents, which would 
be worth recording, did the cursory character of these reminiscences per- 
mit it. On one occasion, I killed a horse by swimming him across the 
Joachim river, at its mouth, whilst he was warm and foaming from a hard 
day's ride. He was put in the stable and attended, but died the next day, 
as was supposed, from this sudden transition. There was scarcely 
a mine or digging in the country, for forty miles around, which I did not 
personally examine ; and few persons, who had given attention to the 
subject, from whom I did not derive some species of information. 

The general hospitality and frankness of the inhabitants of the mine 
country could not but make a favourable impression on a stranger. The 
custom of riding on horseback, in a region which affords great facilities 
for it, makes every one a horseman and a woodsman, and has generated 
something of the cavalier air and manners. But nothing impressed me 
more, in this connexion, than the gallant manner, which I observed here, 
of putting a lady on horseback. She stands facing you, with the bridle 
in her right hand, and gives you her left. She then places one of her feet 
in your left hand, which you stoop to receive, when, by a sinmltaneous 
' exertion and spring, she is vaulted backwards into the saddle. Whether 



PERSONAL REMINISCETSrCES. 



37 



this be a transmitted Spanish custom, I know not, but I have not observed I 
it in the French, or American settlements west of the Alleghanies. 

The earthquakes of 1812, which were so disastrous in South America, 
are known to have propagated themselves towards the north, and they ex- 
erted some striking effects in the lower part of the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, sending down into the channel of the latter, large areas of deluvial 
earth, as was instanced, in a remar^ble manner, at New Madrid. Por- 
tions of the forest, back of this town, sunk, and gave place to lakes and 
lagoons. These effects were also witnessed, though in a milder form, in 
the more solid formations of the mine country. Soon after reaching 
Potosi, I visited the Mineral Fork, a tributary of the Merrim.ack, where 
some of these effects had been witnessed. I descended into the pit and 
crevices of the Old Mines, These mines were explored in tbe metallifer- 
ous rock. Every thing had an old and ruinous look, for they had been 
abandoned. Large quantities of the ore had been formerly raised at this 
mine, which was pursued into a deep fissure of the limestone rock. I de- 
scended into this fissure, and found among the rubbish and vein stones, 
large elongated and orbicular masses of calc spar, the outer surfaces of 
which bore strong marks of geological abrasion. They broke into rhombs 
very transparent, and of a honey-yellow colour. Mr. Elliot, the intelli- 
gent proprietor of this mine, represented the indications of ore to have been 
flattering, although every thing was now at a stand. Masses of sulphuret 
of zinc, in the form of blende, were noticed at this locality. Mr. Elliot 
invited me to dine, and he filled up the time with interesting local remin- 
iscences. He stated, among other facts, that a copious spring, at these 
mines, dried up during the remarkable earthquakes of 1812. These 
earthquakes appear to have discharged their shocks in the direction of the 
stratification from the southwest to the northeast, but they spent their force 
west of the Mississippi. Their chief violence was at Natchitoches and 
New Madrid, at the latter of which they destroyed an immense area of 
alluvial land. Their effects in the Ohio valley, lying exactly in the direc- 
tion of their action, were slight. A Mr. Watkins, of Cincinnati, accom- 
panied me on this examination, and rode back with me to Potosi. 

On the 9th of August, I had dined with Samuel Perry, Esq., at Mine 
a Burton, one of the principal inhabitants of the county, and was passing 
the evening at Mr. Austin's, when Mr. and Mrs. Perry came suddenly in. 
They had hardly taken seats, when a rabble of persons with bells and 
horns surrounded the house, and kept up a tumult that would have done 
honor to one of the wildest festivals of St. Nicholas, headed by Brom Bones 
himself This, we were told, was a Chiraviri. And what is a Chiraviri? 
I am not deep enough read in French local customs to give a satisfactory 
answer, but the custom is said to be one that the populace may indulge in, 
whenever a marriage has taken place in the village, which is not in exact 
accordance with their opinions o'' its propriety. I was, by this incident, in- 



38 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



formed of Mr. Perry's recent marriage, and should judge, moi cover, that 
he had exercised both taste and judgment in his selection of a partner. 
The affair of the Chiraviri is said to have been got up by some spiteful 
persons. 

Towards the middle of the month (12th5) I set out, accompanied by Mr, 
James B. Austin, on horseback, for Herculaneum, by the way of Hazel 
Run, a route displaying a more southerly section of the mine country than 
I had before seen. A ride on horseback over the mine hills, offers one 
of the most delightful prospects of picturesque sylvan beauty that can be 
well conceived of The hills are, with a few exceptions, not precipitous 
enough to make the ride irksome. They rise in long and gentle swells, 
resembling those of the sea, in which the vessel is, by an easy motion, al- 
ternately at the top of liquid hills, or in the bottom of liquid vales. From 
these hills the prospect extends over a surface of heath-grass and prairie 
flowers, with an open growth of oaks, giving the whole country rather 
the aspect of a park than a toilderness. Occasionally a ridge of pine 
intervenes, and wherever there is a brook, the waters present the trans- 
parency of rock crystal. Sometimes a range of red clay hillocks, put- 
ting up rank shrubs and vines of species which were unknown before^ 
indicates an abandoned digging or mine. Farms and farm houses were 
then few ; and every traveller we met on horseback, had more or less the 
bearing of a country cavalier, with a fine horse, good equipments, per- 
haps holsters and pistols, sometimes a rifle, and always something of a 
military air, betokening manliness and independence. Wherever we 
stopped, and whoever we met on the way, there was evinced a courteous 
and hospitable disposition. 

We did not leave Potosi till afternoon. It was a hot August day, and it 
was dusk before we entered the deep shady valley of Big River. Some 
delay arose in waiting for the ferryman to put us across the river, and it 
was nine o'clock in the evening when we reached Mr. Bryant's, at Hazel 
Run, where we were cordially received. Our host would not let us leave 
his house, next morning, till after breakfast. We rode to McCormick's, 
on the Flatten, to dinner, and reached Herculaneum before sunset. The 
distance by this route from Potosi is forty-flve miles, and the road, with 
the exception of a couple of miles, presented a wholly new section of the 
country. 

The Mississippi was now low, displaying large portions of its margin, 
and exhibiting heavy deposits of mud and slime, which broke into cakes, 
as they dried in the sun. I know not whether these exhalations affected 
me, but I experienced a temporary illness for a few days during this visit. 
I recollect that we had, during this time, some severe and drenching rain 
storms, with vivid and copious lightning, and heavy pealing thunder. 
These drenching and rapid showers convert the brooks and rills of the 
mine country to perfect torrents, and this explains one cause of the wash- 



PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 



39 



ing away and gullying of roads and streets, so remarkable on the west 
bank of the Mississippi. My illness induced me to give up returning on 
horseback ; and I set out^ on the 18th of the month, in a dearborn, accom- 
panied by Mrs. Austin. On descending the long hill, near Donnell's, be- 
yond the Joachim, the evening was so dark that I became sensible I must 
have got out of the road. I drove with the more care a few moments, 
and stopped. Requesting Mrs. Austin to hold the reins, I jumped out 
and explored the ground. I found myself in an abandoned, badly gullied 
track, which would have soon capsized the wagon ; but leading the horse 
by the bridle, I slowly regained my position in the direct road and got 
down the hill, and reached the house without further accident. Next day 
we drove into Potosi by four o'clock in the afternoon. This was my 
second visit, and 1 now accepted a room and quarters for my collection, 
at their old homestead called Durham Hall. 

From this period till the middle of September, T pursued with unre- 
mitting assiduity, the enquiry in hand, and by that time had made a cabi- 
net collection, illustrating fully the mineralogy, and, to some extent, the geo- 
logical structure of the country. I erected a small chemical furnace for 
assays. Some of the clays of the country were found to stand a high 
heat, and by tempering them with pulverized granite, consisting largely 
of feld5=par, 1 obtamed crucibles that answered every purpose. Some of 
the specimens of lead treated in the dry way, yielded from 75 to 82 pel 

.-vocuieni mre'."' in ii.j way, on the 25th of August, a fact which led to 
tne discovery of a primitive tract, on the southern borders of the mine 
country, the true geological relation of which to the surrounding second- 
ary formations, formed at the outset rather a puzzle. I rode out on horse- 
back on that day, with Mr. Stephen F. Austin, to Miller's, on the Mineral 
Fork, to observe a locality of manganese, and saw lying, near his mills, 
some large masses of red syenitic granite, which appeared to have been 
freshly blasted. He remarked that they were obtained on the St. Francis, 
and were found to be the best material at hand for millstones. On exami- 
nation, the rock consisted almost exclusively of red feldspar and quartz. 
A little hornblende was present, but scarcely a trace of mica. This 
species of syenitic granite, large portions of which, viewed in the field, 
are complete syenite, and all of which is very barren of crystals, I have 
smce found on the upper Mississippi, and throughout the northwestern 
regions above the secondary latitudes. The hint, however, was not lost. 
I took the first opportunity to visit the sources of the St. Francis : having 
obtained letters to a gentleman in that vicinity, I set out on horseback 
for that region, taking a stout pair of saddle-bags, to hold my collections. 
I passed through Murphy's and Cook's settlements, which are, at the 
present time, the central parts of St. Francis county. MiTie a la Motte 
afforded some new facts in its mineralogical features. I first saw this red 



1 



40 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 

syenite, in place, on Blackford's Fork. The westernmost limits of this 
ancient mine extends to within a mile or two of this primitive formation. 
The red clay formation extends to the granitic elevations, and conceals 
their junction with the newer rock. The nearest of the carhoniferous 
series, in place, is on the hanks of Rock Creek, at some miles' distance. 
It is there the crystalline sandstone. How far this primitive district of 
the St. Francis extends, has not been determined. The St. Francis and 
Grand rivers, both have their sources in it. It is probable the Ozaw Fork 
of the Merrimack comes from its western borders. Not less than twenty 
or thirty miles can be assigned for its north and south limits. The Iron 
mountain of Bellvieu is within it. The vicinity of the pass called the 
Narrows, appears to have been the locality of former volcanic action. A 
scene of ruder disruption, marked by the vast accumulation of broken 
rock, it would be difficult to find. Indeed the whole tract is one of high 
geological, as well as scenic interest. Had the observer of this scene 
been suddenly dropped down into one of the wildest, broken, primitive 
tracts of New England, or the north east angle of New York, he could 
not have found a field of higher physical attractions. Trap and green- 
stone constitute prominent tracts, and exist in the condition of dykes in 
the syenite, or feldspathique granite, I sought in vain for mica in the 
form of distinct plates. Some of the greenstone is handsomely porpho- 
rytic, and embraces green crystals of feldspar. Portions of this rock are 
sprinkled with masses of bright sulp buret of iron. Indeed iron in several 
of its forms abounds. By far the largest portion of it is in the shape of 
the micaceous oxyde. I searched, without success, for the irridescen 
specular variety, or Elba ore. In returning from this trip, I found Wolf 
river greatly swollen by rains, and had to swim it at much hazard, with 
my saddle-bags heavily laden with the results of my examination. It was 
dark when I reached the opposite bank : wet and tired I pushed for the 
only house in sight. As I came to it the doors stood open, the fences 
were down, a perfect air of desolation reigned around. There was no 
living being found ; and the masses of yawning darkness exhibited by 
the untenanted rooms, seemed a fit residence for the genius of romance. 
Neither my horse nor myself were, however, in a temper or plight for an 
adventure of this kind, and the poor beast seemed as well pleased as I 
was, to push forward from so cheerless a spot. Four miles' riding through 
an untenanted forest, and a dark and blind road, brought us to a Mr. 
Murphy s, the sponsor of Murphy's settlement. 



SCEIES AND ADVEITURES 



IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 
A. D. 1818 AND 1819. 

FROM THE ORIGINAL NOTES AND JOURNAL. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

Very little, it is conceived, is necessary to enable the reader to determine 
the writer's position on the extreme south western frontiers, in the year 
1818. He had spent the summer of that year in traversing the mine dis- 
trict, which extends along the right bank of the Mississippi, between the 
mouth of the Maromeg and the diluvial cliffs south of Cape Girardeau, 
extending west and south westward to the sources of the St. Francis. In 
these mineralogical rambles, which were pursued sometimes on foot, and 
sometimes on horseback, or wheels, he made acquaintance with many 
estimable men, amongst whom he may name the Austins, father and son, 
the late Col. Ashley, John Rice Jones, Esq., and many others who are 
8till living, by all whom, his object in visiting the country was cordially 
approved and encouraged, at all times. He also became acquainted with 
|)ractical miners, and persons of enterprize who were not only familiar 
with the settled frontiers, but who had occasionally penetrated beyond 
them, into the broad expanse of highlands, now geographically known 
under the term of, the Ozark Chain. Geologically considered, the mine 
country is but the eastern flanks of this chain, which extends flush to the 
banks of the Mississippi, and has its terminus in that elevated range of 
mural cliffs, which form so striking and often picturesque a display, be- 
tween St. Genevieve and St. Louis. There was, at the time, a general 
apprehension felt and expressed, by hunters and others who had pene- \ 
trated those wilds in quest of deer and buffalo, or of saltpetre-earth in the 
limestone caves, of the predatory tribe of theOsages, — a people who had for 
years enjoyed the bad reputation of being thieves and plunderers. All 
concurred, however, in the interesting character of the country extending 
in a general course, south-westwardly, from the junction of the Missouri 
with the Mississippi, He felt an ardent desire to penetrate this terra ' 
incognita. He could not learn that any exploratory journey had been 
made towards the Rocky Mountains, since the well known expeditions of 
Lewis and Clark, up the Missouri, and of Lieut. Pike, across the upper 
region of the Arkansas, to Sante Fe and Chihuahua. Breckenridge had 

41 



42 



ADVteNTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



subsequently published an account of a trip to Council Bluffs.* But nei- 
ther of these routes crossed the wide and mountanious tracts referred to, or 
gave any definite information respecting them. Viewed on the map, these 
routes formed the general exterior outhnes, but they left the interior filling 
up to be supplied, — or, if supplied at all, it was too often with such vague 

phrases as these — Here are salt mountains." " The is supposed to 

take its rise here." " Volcanic hills," and so forth. The geology of the 
country furnished no indications whatever of the probability of the latter 
remark. The kind of pseudo-pumice found floating down the Missouri, 
in high water, had been stated by Lewis and Clarke, to have a far more 
remote, and local origin. The description of rock salt, in mountain mass, 
had long been numbered by popular belief, among the fanciful creations 
of an exciting political era ; and together with western volcanoes, had 
settled down among those antiquarian rumours, which hold up, as their 
prime item, the existence of the living mammoth " beyond the big lakes," 
If the writer of the notes and journal which furnish these sketches, 
was not swayed by any particular theories of this nature, yet was he not 
free from the expectation of finding abundant materials, in the natural pro- 
ductions and scenery and incidents of the journey, to reward him amply for 
its perils. He had received from hunters several objects of the minerological 
and geological collection which he made, while living at Potosi, and Mine d 
Burton: from these wild borders, and, without pretending to estimate the 
force of each particular object which made up the sum of his motives, he 
resolved to organize an expedition, with all the means he could muster, 
and explore the region. The Austins, who had treated him with marke^i 
kindness and attention, from the hour of h'ln fir-fst litnUmg m Wk'i&sour:. 
were then prepariug : i^- .haa firsi movp,ment into Texas, and neld 
out to him a fine thei<,.<. ior cnierprise ; but it was one not suited to his 
particular means or taste. He recoiled from the subtlety of the Spanish 
character ; and is free to confess, that he deemed it a far more attractive 
latitude for the zea maize and the cotton plant, than for those pursuits 
which led him to prefer the more rugged eminences of the Ozarks. 
They, in the end, founded a republic, and he only made an. adventurous 
journey. 

Having thus recalled the era and the motive of the following sketches, 
the purport of these remarks is accomplished. 
New York, 1844. 

* The United States government, the very next year, 1819, sent out Col. Long to the 
Yellow Stone. 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



43 



CHAPTER I. 

Things to be thought of before plunging into the woods — Composition of the party, and 
reasons why it was not more numerous — First night's encampment — Preliminaries 
— Sleep in a deserted Indian lodge — A singular variety of the Fox Squirrel — The 
Pack Horse escapes — Cross the elevation called the Pinery — Reach the outskirts of 
the settlements in the valley of the Fourche A'Courtois. 

Whoever would venture into the wilderness, should provide himself 
with such articles of personal comfort or safety, as habits, forecast, or the 
particular object' of pursuit or observation, require. Every one will think 
of arms and ammunition, but there are other things required to make life 
pleasant, or even tolerable in the woods. This, prior excursions had 
already taught me, but the lesson was repeated by those of greater expe- 
rience. There were two persons who had agreed to go with me, and 
stick by me, to the end, — the one a native of Massachussets, and the other, 
of Connecticut, both like myself, new in the field, and unacquainted with 
life in the woods. What they lacked in this art, they more than made up, 
I thought, in intelligence, enterprise and resource. The name of the first 
was Brigham. The other, I shall allude to, under the name of Enobitti. 
Some three or four other persons, natives of the region, had consented to 
go as hunters, or adventurers into a new field for emigration, but it so 
happened, that when all was ready — when every objection to the tour had 
been obviated, and every want supplied, and when my two eastern friends 
came on to the ground, these persons all quietly, and with an easy flow of 
reasons, backed out. In fact, my friend Brigham, was also obliged to 
relinquish the journey, after he had reached the point of rendezvous, i. e. 
Potosi. A residence on the American bottom, in Illinois, the prior sum- 
mer, had exposed him to the malaria of that otherwise attractive agricul- 
tural area, and an intermittent fever, which he had thus contracted, forbade 
his venturing beyond the settlements. So that when the appointed day 
arrived, Enobitti and myself and my good landlord, Ficklin — a warm 
hearted Kentuckian, who had been a hunter and border spy in his youth, 
were all the persons I could number, and the latter, only went a short dis- 
tance, out of the goodness of his heart, and love of forest adventure, to set 
us, as it were, on the way, and initiate us into some necessary forest arts, 
It was a bright balmy day,— the 6th of November, 1818. The leaves were 
rapidly falling from the trees, and strewed the road and made a musical 
rustling among the branches, as we passed the summits of the mine hills, 
which separated the valley of Mine a Burton from the next adjoining 
stream. The air had just enough of the autumn freshness in it, to make 
it inspiring ; and we walked forward, with the double animation of health 



44 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS 



and hope. As we passed through forests where the hickory abounded, 
the fox and grey squirrel were frequently seen preparing their winter's 
stores, and gave additional animation to the scene. It was early in the 
afternoon when we came into the valley of Bates' Creek — it was indeed 
but a few miles from our starting point, where our kind Mentor told us, it 
was best to encamp ; for, in the first place, it was the only spot where we 
could obtain water for a long distance, and secondly, and more important 
than all, it was necessary that we should re-arrange the load of our pack- 
horse, take a lesson in the art of encamping, and make some other prepa- 
rations which were proper, before we plunged outright into the wilderness. 
This was excellent advice, and proper not only to novices, but even to the 
initiated in the woodsman's art. It is always an object, to make, by this 
initiatory movement, what is technically called a start. 

I had purchased at Potosi. a horse — a low priced animal, rather old and 
bony, to carry our blankets, some light cooking utensils and a few other 
articles of necessity, and some provisions. He bore the not very appro- 
priate name of" Butcher," whether from a former owner, or how acquired 
I know not, but he was not of a sanguinary temper, or at least, the only 
fighting propensity he ever evinced v/as to get back to Potosi, as quick as 
possible, for he ran off the very first night, and frequently, till we got quite 
far west, repeated the attempt. The poor beast seemed to know, instinc- 
tively, that he was going away from the land of corn fodder, and would 
have to sustain himself by picking up his meals out of sere-grass, often in 
stony places, or in some dense and vine-bound cane bottom, where his hind 
legs would often be bound fast by the green briar, while he reached for- 
ward in vain, to bite off a green leaf 

Here w^e took the first lesson in duly hobbling a horse — a very neces- 
sary lesson : for if not hohhled^i he will stray away, and cause great deten- 
tion in the morning, and if not ivell hobbled he will injre his legs. We 
found, near the banks of the stream, a deserted Indian lodge, which ap- 
peared susceptible, by a little effort, of affording us a very comfortable 
night's lodging, and would furthermore, should it rain, prove an effectual 
shelter. This arrangement we immediately set about : the horse was un- 
packed, his burden stowed in the lodge, the horse hobbled and belled, and 
a fire lit. While mj companion arranged the details of the camp, and 
prepared to boil a cup of tea, I took my gun, and, with but little ado, shot 
anumber of fine fox and grey squirrels — beingthe first fruits of our exertions 
in the chace. Among them, there was one of decidedly mongrel species. 
If not, the variety was peculiar. He had a grey body, and a red foxy 
tail, with the belly, nose, and tips of the ears black, thus uniting charac- 
terestics of three varieties. One or two of these were added to our supper, 
which we made with great satisfaction, and in due time spread out our 
blankets, and slept soundly till day break. 

On sallying out, I found the horse was gone, and set out in pursuit of 



I 

ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 45 

him. Althougli his fore feet were tethered, so that he must lift up both 
together, he made his way back, in this jumping manner, to his former 
owner's door, in the village of Mine a Burton. He had not, however, 
kept the path, all the \yay, and losing his track after he got on the herbage, 
my ear caught the sound of a bell far to the left, which I took to be his, 
and followed. I pursued the sound of this bell, which was only heard 
now and then, till after crossing hill and dale, without deviation from the 
line of sound, I came out at a farm yard, four miles below Potosi ; where 
I found the bell to be attached to the neck of a stately penned ox. The 
ovvfner, (who knew me and the circumstance of my having set out on the 
expedition,) told me, that Butcher had reached the mines, and been sent 
back, by a son of his former owner, to my camp. I had nothing left, but 
to retrace my way to the sam^e spot, where I found the fugitive, and sat 
down to a breakfast of tea, bread, ham and squirrel. The whole morning 
had been lost by this misadventure. It was ten o'clock before we got the 
animal packed and set forward. 

Our second day's journey yielded but little to remark. We travelled 
diligently along a rough mountainous path, across a sterile tract called the 
Pinery. This tract is valuable only for its pine timber. It has neither 
farming land nor mineral wealth. Not a habitation of any kind was 
passed. We saw neither bird nor animal. The silence of desolation 
seemed to accompany us. It was a positive relief to the uniform sterility 
of the soil, and monotony of the prospect, to see at length, a valley before 
us. It was a branch of the Maromeg^jor^Memmack which is called by 
its original French term of Fourche d Courtois. We had travelled a dis- 
tance of fourteen miles over these flinty eminences. The first signs of 
human habitation appeared in the form of enclosed fields. The sun sunk 
below the hills, as we entered this valley, and we soon had the glimpse of 
a dwelling. Some woodcock flew up as we hastened forvi-ard, and we 
were not long in waiting for our formal announcement in the loud and 
long continued barking of dogs. It required the stern commands of their 
master, before they slunk back and became quiet. It was a small log 
tenement of the usual construction on the frontiers, and afforded us the 
usual hospitality and ready accommodation. They gave us warm cakes 
of corn bread, and fine rich milk. We spread our blankets before an 
evening's fire, and enjoyed a good night's rest. Butcher here, I think, 
had his last meal of corn, and made no attempt to return. With the 
earliest streaks of day light, we re-adjusted his pack, and again set 
forward. 



46 



ADVENTUBES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Reach a hunter's cabin on the outskirts of the wilderness — He agrees to accompany 
us — Enter the Ozark Hills — Encounter an encampment of the Delaware Indians — 
Character of the country — Its alpine air, and the purity of its waters. — Ascend to 
the source of the Merrimack — Reach a game coimtry — Deserted by the hunter and 
guide, and abandoned to mdividual exertions in these arts. 

Every joint labour, whicli proceeds on the theory, that each person en- 
gaged in it is to, render some personal service, must, in order that it may 
go on pleasantly and succeed well, have a definite order, or rule of pro- 
gress ; and this is as requisite in a journey in the wilderness as any where- 
else. Our rule was to lead the pack horse, and to take the compass and 
guide ahead, alternately, day by da^r. It was thought, I had the best art. 
in striking and making a fire, and when we halted for the night, always did 
this, while my companion procured water and put it in a way to boil for 
tea. We carried tea, as being lighter and more easy to make than coffee. 
In this way we divided, as equally as possible, the daily routine of duties,, 
and went on pleasantly. We had now reached the last settlement on the 
frontier, and after a couple of hours' walk, from our last place of lodging, 
we reached the last house, on the outer verge of the wilderness. It was 
a small, newly erected log hut, occupied by a hunter of the name of Ro- , 
berts, and distant about 20 miles from, and south-west of Potosi. Our ap- 
proach here was also heralded by dogs. Had we been wolves or pan- 
thers, creeping upon the premises at midnight, they could not have 
performed their duty more noisily. Truly this was a very primitive 
dwelling, and as recent in its structure as it was primitive. Large fallen 
trees lay about, just as the axeman had felled them, and partly consumed 
by fire. The effect of this partial burning had been only to render these 
huge trunks black and hideous. One of them lay in front of the cottage. 
In other places were to be seen deer skins stretched to dry; and 
deers' feet and antlers lay here and there. There was not a foot of 
land in cultivation. It was quite evident at first sight, that we had 
reached the dwelling of a border hunter, and not a tiller of the ground,. 
But the owner was absent, as we learned from his wife, a spare, shrewd, 
dark-skinned little woman, drest in buckskin, who issued from the dooi. 
before we reached it, and welcomed us by the term of " Strangers." Al 
though this is a western term, which supplies the place of the word 
'•friend," in other sections of the union, and she herself seemed to be. 
thoroughly a native of these latitudes, no Yankee could have been 
more inquisitive, in one particular department of enquiry, namely the de- 
partment relative to the chace. She inquired o.iir object — the course and 
distance we proposed tr travel, and the genoiiai' arrangem.ents of horse- 



ADVENTUEES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



47 



gear, equipage, &c. She told us of the danger of encountering the 
Osages, and scrutinized our arms. Such an examination would indeed, 
for its thoroughness, have put a lad to his trumps, who had come 
prepared for his first quarter's examination at a country academy. She 
told us, con amore, that her hushand would be back soon, — as soon indeed 
as we could get our breakfast, and that he would be glad to accompany 
us, as far as Ashley's Cave, or perhaps farther. This was an opportunity 
not to be slighted. We agreed to wait, and prepare our morning's 
meal, to which she contributed some well baked corn cakes. By this 
time, and before indeed we had been long there, Roberts came in. It is 
said that a hunter's life is a life of feasting or fasting. It appeared to be 
one of the latter seasons, with him. He had been out to scour the 
precincts, for a meat breakfast, but came home empty handed. He was 
desirous to go out in the direction we were steering, which he represented 
to abound in game, but feared to venture far alone, on account of the ras- 
cally Osages. He did not fear the Delawares, who were near by. 
He readily accepted our offer to accompany us as hunter. Roberts, like 
his forest help-mate, was clothed in deer skin. He was a rather chunky, 
stout, middle sized man, with a ruddy face, cunning features, and a 
bright unsteady eye. Such a fellow's final destination would not be a 
very equivocal matter, were he a resident of the broad neighbourhood of 
Sing Sing, or " sweet Auburn :" but here, he was a man that might, 
perhaps, be trusted on an occasion like this, and we, at any rate, were glad to 
have his services on the terms stipulated. Even while we were talk- 
ing he began to clean his rifle, and adjust his leathern accoutrements : he 
then put several large cakes of corn bread in a sack, and in a very 
short time he brought a stout little horse out of a log pen, which 
served for a barn ; and clapping an old saddle on his back and mounting 
him, with his rifle in one hand, said, " I am ready," and led off. We 
now had a guide, as well as a hunter, and threw this burden wholly 
on him. Our course lay up a long ridge of hard bound clay and chert 
soil, in the direction of the sources of the Marameg^or, as it is now uni- 
versally called and written, Merrimack. After travelling about four 
miles we suddenly descended from an acclivity into a grassy, woodless 
valley, with a brisk clear stream winding through it, and several lodges 
of Indians planted on its borders. This, our guide told us, was the Ozaw 
Fork of the Merrimack, (in modern geographical parlance Ozark.) And 
here we found the descendants and remainder of that once powerful 
tribe of whom William Penn purchased the site of Philadelphia, and 
whose ancient dominion extended, at the earliest certain historical era^ 
along the banks the Lennapihittuck, or Delaware river. Two of them 
were at home, it being a season of the year, and time of day, when the 
men are out hunting. Judging from peculiarity of features, manners and 
dress, it would seem to be impossible that any people, should have re- 



48 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



mained so long in contact with or juxtaposition to the European races, 
and changed so little, in all that constitutes national and personal identity, 
Roberts looked with no very friendly eye upon these ancient lords of the 
forest, the whole sum of his philosophy and philanthropy being measured 
by the very tangible circle of prairie and forests, which narrowed his own 
hunting grounds. They were even then, deemed to have been injudici- 
ously located, by intelligent persons in the west, and have long since re- 
moved to a permanent location, out of the corporate limits of the States 
and Territories, at the junction of the river Konga with the Missouri. 1 
should have been pleased to have lengthened our short halt, but the word 
seemed with him and Enobitti to be " onward," and onward we pushed. 
We were now fairly in the Ozark chain — a wide and almost illimitable 
tract, of which it may be said, that the vallies only are susceptible of fu- 
ture cultivation. The intervening ridges and mountains are nearly desti- 
tute of forest, often perfectly so, and in almost all cases, sterile, and unfit 
for the plough. It is probable sheep might be raised on some of these 
eminences, which possess a sufficiency of soil to permit the grasses to be 
sown. Geologically, it has a basis of limestones, resting on sandstones. 
Unfortunately for its agricultural character, the surface has been co- 
vered with a foreign diluvium of red clay filled with chips of horstone, chert 
and broken quartz, which make the soil hard and compact. Its trees are 
few and stunted ; its grass coarse. In looking for the origin of such a soil, 
it seems probable to have resulted from broken down slates and shists on the 
upper Missouri and below the range of the Rocky Mountains, in which 
these broken and imbedded substances originally constituted veins. It is 
only in the vallies, and occasional plains, that a richer and more carbo- 
naceous soil has accumulated. The purest sprmgs, however, gush out of 
its hills ; its atmosphere is fine and healthful, and it constitutes a theatre 
of Alpine attractions, which will probably render it, in future years, thf 
resort of shepherds, lovers of mountain scenery, and valetudinarians 
There is another remark to be made of the highland tracts of the Ozarli 
range. They look, in their natural state, more sterile than they actually 
are, from the efiects of autumnal fires. These fires, continued for ages hy 
the natives, to clear the ground for hunting, have had the effect not only 
to curtail and destroy large vegetation, but all the carbonaceous particles oi 
the top soil have been burned, leaving the surface in the autumn, rough, 
red, dry and hard. When a plough comes to be put into such a surface, 
it throws up quite a different soil ; and the effects of light, and the sun's 
heat are often found, as I have noticed in other parts of the west, to pro- 
duce a dark and comparatively rich soil. 

We occupied the entire day in ascending and crossing the ridge of 
land, which divides the little valley of the Oza from that of the Merrimack. 
When getting near the latter, the soil exhibited traces of what appeared 
to be iron ore, but somewhat peculiar in its character, and of dark hue. 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



49 



This soon revealed itself, in passing a short distance, in an abundant lo- 
cality of black and coloured oxide of manganese — lying in masses in the 
arid soil. The Indian trail which we were pursuing led across the val- 
ley. We forded the river on foot. No encampments of Indians were 
found, nor any very recent traces of them ; and we began to think that 
the accounts of Osage depredations and plundering, must be rather exag- 
gerated. The river pours its transparent mountain waters over a wade 
bed of pebbles and small boulders, and, at this season, offered but little im- 
pediment to the horses or ourselves in crossing it. The sun was getting 
low, by the time we reached the opposite side of the valley, and we en- 
camped on its borders, a mile or two above. Here we took due care of 
our horses, prepared our evening's meal, talked over the day's adven- 
tures, enjoyed ourselves sitting before our camp fire, with the wild wide 
creation before us and around, and then sank to a sound repose on our 
pallets. 

Novices in the woodman's art, and raw in the business of travelling, 
our sleep was sounder and more death-like, than that of Roberts. His 
eye had shown a restlessness during the afternoon and evening. We 
were now in a game country, the deer and elk ^began to be frequently 
seen, and their fresh tracks across our path, denoted their abundance. 
During the night they ventured about our camp, so as to disturb the ears 
of the weary hunter, and indeed, my own. He got up and found both 
ihorses missing. Butcher's memory of Mine a Burton corn fodder had 
not deserted him, and he took the hunter's horse along with him. I jumped 
up, and accompanied him, in their pursuit. They were both overtaken 
about three miles back on the track, making all possible speed homeward, 
that their tethered fore legs would permit. We conducted them back, 
without disturbing my companion, and he then went out with his rifle, 
and quickly brought in a fine fat doe, for our breakfast. Each one cut 
fine pieces of steaks, and roasted for himself We ate it, with a little salt, 
and the remainder of the hunter's corn cakes, and finished the repast, with 
a pint cup each, of Enobitti's best tea. This turned out to be d finale 
meal with our Fourche a Courtois man, Roberts : for the rascal, a few 
hours afterwards, deserted us, and went back. Had he given any intima- 
tion of dissatisfaction, or a desire to return, we should have been in a 
measure prepared for it. It is probable his fears of the then prevalent bug- 
bear of those frontiersmen, the Osages, were greater than our own. It is 
also probable, that he had no other idea whatever, in leaving the Fourche a 
Courtois, than to avail himself of our protection till he could get into a 
region where he could shoot deer enough in a single morning to load 
down his horse, with the choicest pieces, and lead him home. This the 
event, at least, rendered probable ; and the fellow not only deserted us 
meanly, but he carried ofT my best new hunting knife, with scabbard and 
belt — a loss not easily repaired in such a place. 



50 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 

To cloak his plan, he set out with us in the morning-: it had rained a little, 
during the latter part of the night, and was lowering and dark all the 
morning. After travelling about ten miles, we left the Osage trail, which 
began to bear too far north-west, and struck through the woods in a south 
course, with the view of reaching Ashley's Cave on one of the head 
streams of the river currents. Soon after leaving this trail, Roberts, who 
was in advance on our left, about Imlf a mile, fired at, and killed, a deer, 
and immediately re-loaded, pursued and fired again ; telling us to continue 
on our course, as he, being on horseback, could easily overtake us. We 
neither heard nor saw more of him. Night overtook us near the banks of 
a small lake, or rather a series of little lakes or ponds, communicating 
with each other, where we encamped. After despatching our supper, and 
adjusting, in talk, the day's rather eventful incidents, and the morrow's plan 
of march, we committed ourselves to rest, but had not sunk into forgetful- 
ness, when a pack of wolves set up their howl in our vicinity. We had 
been told that these animals will not approach near a fire, and are not t^i 
be dreaded in a country where deer abound. They follow the track of 
the hunter, to share such part of the carcass as he leaves, and it is their 
nature to herd together and run down this animal as their natural prey. We 
slept well, but it is worthy of notice, that on awaking about day break, the 
howling of the wolves was still heard, and at about the same distance. 
They had probably serenaded us all night. Our fire was nearly out ; 
we felt some chilliness, and determined to rekindle it, and prepare our 
breakfast before setting forward. It was now certain, that Roberts was 
gone. Luckily he had not carried off our compass, for that would have 
"been an accident fatal to the enterprise. ^ 



CHAPTER III. 



A deeper view of the Ozark Chain. Pass along the flanks of the highlands which 
send out the sources of the Black, Eleven points, Currents and Spring rivers. Reach 
a romantic glen of caves. Birds and animals seen. Saltpetre earth ; stalactites. 
Cross the alpine summit of the western Ozarks. Source of the Gasconde river 
Accident in fording the Little Osage river.— Encamp on one of its tributaries. 

It was found, as we began to bestir ourselves for wood to light our fire 
that we had reposed not far from a bevy of wild ducks, who had sought 
the grassy edge of the lake during the night, and with the first alarm be- 
took themselves to flight. With not so ready a mode of locomotion, we 
followed their example, in due time, and also their course, which was 
south. At the distance of a couple of miles, we crossed a small stream, 
running south-east, which we judged to be the outlet of the small lakes 
referred to, and which is, probably the source of Black River, or the 
Eleven points. Our course led us in an opposite direction, and we soon 
found ourselves approaching the sterile hills which bound the romantic 
valley of the currents. There had been some traces of wheels, on the 
softer soil, which had been driven in this direction tov/ards the saltpetre 
caves, but we completely lost them, as we came to and ascended these arid 
and rugged steeps. Some of these steeps rose into dizzy and romantic 
cliffs, surmounted with pines. We wound our way cautiously amongst 
them, to find some gorge and depression, through vsrhich we might enter the 
valley. For ourselves we should not have been so choice of a path, but 
we had a pack horse to lead, and should he be precipitated into a gulf, we 
must bid adieu to our camp equipage. Our arms and a single blanket, 
would be all we could carry. At length this summit was reached. The 
view was enchanting. A winding wooded valley, with its clear bright 
river, stretched along at the base of the summit. Rich masses of foliage, 
hung over the clear stream, and were reflected in its pellucid current, with a 
double beauty. The autumnal frost, which had rifled the highland trees 
of their clothing, appeared to have passed over this deeply secluded valley 

51 



52 ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



with but little effect, and this effect, was only to highten the interest of the 
scene, by imparting to portions of its foliage, the liveliest orange and crim- 
son tints. And this was rendered doubly attractive by the contrast. Be- 
hind us lay the bleak and barren hills, over which we had struggled, 
without a shade, or a brook, or even the simplest representative of the ani- 
mal creation. For it is a truth, that during the heat of the day, both birds 
and quadrupeds betake themselves to the secluded shades of the streams 
and vallies. From these they sally out, into the plains, in quest of food 
at early dawn, and again just before night fall. All the rest of the day, 
the plains and highlands have assumed the silence of desolation. Even- 
ing began to approach as we cautiously picked our way down the cliffs, 
and the first thing we did, on reaching the stream was to take a hearty 
drink of its crystal treasure, and let our horse do the same. The next ob- 
ject was to seek a fording place — which was effected without difficulty. 
On mounting the southern bank, we again found the trail, lost in the 
morning, and pursued it with alacrity. It was my turn this day to be in 
advance, as guide, but the temptation of small game, as we went up the 
valley, drew me aside, while Enobitti proceeded to select a suitable spot 
for the night's encampment. It was dark when I rejoined him, with my 
squirrel and pigeon hunt. He had confined himself closely to the 
trail. It soon led him out of the valley, up a long brushy ridge, and then 
through an open elevated pine grove, which terminated abruptly in a per- 
pendicular precipice. Separated from this, at some eight hundred yards 
distance, stood a counter precipice of limestone rock, fretted out, into pin- 
nacles and massy walls, with dark openings, which gave the whole the 
resemblance of architectural ruins. The stream that ran between these 
cliffs, was small, and it lay so deep and well embrowned in the shades of 
evening, that it presented vividly from this elevation, a waving bright Hne 
on a dark surface. Into this deep dark terrific glen the path led, and here 
we lit our fire, hastily constructed a bush camp, and betook ourselves, 
after due ablutions in the little stream, to a night's repose. The sky be- 
came rapidly overcast, before we had finished our meal, and a night of 
intense darkness, threatening a tempest, set in. As we sat by our fire, its 
glare upon huge beetling points of overhanging rocks, gave the scene a 
wild and picturesque cast ; and we anticipated returning daylight with an 
anxious wish to know and see our exact locality. By the restless tramp- 
ing of our horse, and the tinkling of his bell, we knew that he had found 
but indifferent picking. 

Daylight fulfilled the predictions of the evening. We had rain. It 
also revealed our position in this narrow, and romantic glen. A high wall 
of rocks, encompassed us on either hand, but they were not such as would 
have resulted in a volcanic country from a valley fissure. Narrow and 
deep as the glen was, it was at once apparent, that it was a valley of de- 
nudation, and had owed its existence to the wasting effects of the trifling 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZAEK MOUNTAINS. 



53 



stream within it. carrying away, particle by particle, the matter loosened 
by rains and frosts, and mechanical attrition. The cliffs are exclusively 
calcareous, and piled up, mason like, in horizontal layers. One of the 
most striking pictures which they presented, was found in the great num- 
ber, size and variety of caves, which opened into this calcareous formation. 
These caves are of all sizes, some of them very large, and not a few of 
them situated at elevations above the floor of the glen, which forbade ac- 
cess. 

One of our first objects, after examining the neighbourhood, was to re- 
move our baggage and location up the glen, into one of these caves, 
which at the distance of about a mile, promised us an effectual shelter from 
the inclemency of the storm. This done, we determined here to wait for 
settled weather, and explore the precincts. By far the most prominent 
object, among the caverns, was the one into which we had thus uncere- 
moniously thrust ourselves. It had evidently been visited before, by per- 
sons in search of saltpetre earth. Efflorescences of nitric earth, were 
abundant in its fissures, and this salt was also present in masses of reddish 
diluvial earth, which lay in several places. The mouth of this cave pre- 
sented a rude irregular arc, of which the extreme height was probably 
thirty feet, and the base line ninety. The floor of this orifice occurs, at 
an elevation of about forty feet above the stream. And this size is held for 
about two hundred feet, when it expands into a lofty dome, some eighty or 
ninety feet high, and perhaps, three hundred in diameter. In its centre a 
fine spring of water issues from the rock. From this dome several pas- 
sages lead off in different directions. 

One of these opens into the glen, at an inaccessible point, just below. 
Another runs back nearly at right angles with the mouth, putting out 
smaller passages, of not much importance, however, in its progress. So 
splendid and noble an entrance gave us the highest hopes of finding it but 
the vestibule of a natural labyrinth ; but the result disappointed us. These 
ample dimensions soon contract, and after following the main or south 
passage about five hundred yards, we found our further entrance barred, 
by masses of fallen rock, at the foot of which a small stream trickled 
through the broken fragments, and found its way to the mouth. Have we 
good reason to attribute to this small stream, a power sufficient to be re- 
garded as the effective agent in carrying away the calcareous rock, so as 
to have in a long period produced the orifice? Whence then, it may be 
asked, the masses of compact reddish clay and pebble diluvium, which 
exist ? These seem rather to denote that these caves were open orifices, 
during th(? period of oceanic action, upon the surface of the Ozarks, and 
that a mass of waters, surcharged with such materials, flowed into pre- 
existing caverns. This diluvium is, in truth, of the same era as the wide 
spread stream of like kind, which has been deposited over the metalliferous 
region of Missouri. If these, however, be questions for geological doubt, 



54 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



we had lit upon another inquiry, very prominent on our minds in 
making this exploration, namely, whether there were any wild beasts 
sheltered in its fissures. Satisfied that we were safe on this score, we re- 
traced our footsteps to our fire, and sallied out to visit other caves. Most 
of these v/ere at such heights as prevented access to them. In one in- 
stance, a tree had fallen against the face of the cliff, in such a manner, 
that by climbing it to its forks, and taking one of the latter, the opening 
might be reached. Putting a small mineral hammer in my pocket, I as- 
cended this tree, and found the cave accessible. It yielded some wax- 
yellovvT and white translucent stalactites, and also very delicate w^hite crys- 
tals of nitre. The dimensions of this cave were small, and but little 
higher than to enable a man to stand upright. 

In each of the caves of this glen which I entered, during a halt of 
several days in this vicinity, I looked closely about for fossil bones, but 
without success in any instance. The only article of this kind observed 
was the recent leg and foot bones and vertebra of the bos musarius, 
v/hich appeared to be an inhabitant of the uppermost fissures in these cal- 
careous cliffs, but I never saw the living species, although I ranged along 
their summits and bases, with my gun and hammer, at various hours. 
Some of the compact lime stone in the bed of the creek exhibited a striped 
and jaspery texture. The wood-duck and the duck and mallard some- 
times frequented this secluded stream, and it was a common resort for the 
wild turkey, at a certain hour in the evening. This bird seemed at such 
times to come in thirsty, from its ranges in quest of acorns on the up- 
lands, and its sole object appeared to be to drink. Sitting in the mouth 
of our cave, we often had a fine opportunity to see flocks of these noisy 
and fine birds flying down from the clifls, and perching on the trees below 
us. If they came to roost, as well as to slack their thirst, a supposition 
probable, this was an ill-timed movement, so long as we inhabited the glen, 
for they only escaped the claw and talons of one enemy, to fall before the 
fire-lock of the other. This bird, indeed, proved our best resource on the 
journey, for we travelled with too much noise and want of precaution 
generally, to kill the deer and elk, which, however, were abundant on the 
highland plains. 

We passed three days at the Glen Cave, during which there were se- 
veral rains ; it stormed one entire day, and we employed the time of this 
confinement, in preparing for the more intricate and imknown parts of 
our journey. Hitherto we had pursued for the most of the way, a trail, 
and were cheered on our way, by sometimes observing traces of human 
labour. But, from this point we were to plunge into a perfect wilderness, 
without a trace or track. We had before us, that portion of the Ozark 
range, which separates to the right and left, the waters of the Missouri 
from those of the Mississippi. It was supposed, from the best reports, that 
by holding south-west, across these eminences, we should strike the valley 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



55 



of the White River, which interposed itself between our position there 
and the Arkansas. To enter upon this tract, with our compass only as a 
guide, and with the certainty of finding no nutritious grass for our horse, 
required that we should lighten and curtail our baggage as much as pos- 
sible, and put all our effects into the most compact and portable form. 
And having done this, and the weather proving settled, we followed a 
short distance up the Glen of Caves ; but finding it to lead too directly 
west, we soon left it and mounted the hills which line its southern border. 
A number of latter valleys, covered with thick brush, made this a labour 
by no means slight. The surface was rough ; vegetation sere and dry, 
and every thicket which spread before us, presented an obstacle which was 
to be overcome. We could have penetrated many of these, which the 
horse could not be forced through. Such parts of our clothing as did not 
consist of buckskin, paid frequent tribute to these brambles. At length 
we got clear of these spurs, and entered on a high waving table land where 
travelling became comparatively easy. The first view of this vista of 
nigh land plains was magnificent. It was covered with moderate sized 
sere grass and dry seed pods, which rustled as we passed. There was 
scarcely an object deserving the name of a tree, except, now and then, a 
solitary trunk of a dead pine, or oak, which had been scathed by light- 
ning. The bleached skull of the buffalo, was sometimes met, and proved 
that this animal had once existed here. Rarely we passed a stunted oak j 
sometimes a cluster of saplings crowned the summit of a sloping hill ; the 
deer often bounded before us ; we sometimes disturbed the hare from its 
sheltering bush, or put to flight the quail or the prairie hen. There was 
no prominent feature for the eye to rest upon. The unvaried prospect 
produced satiety. We felt in a peculiar manner the solitariness of the 
wilderness. We travelled silently and diligently. It was a dry and thirsty 
barren. From morning till sun set we did not encounter a di^op of water. 
This became the absorbing object. Hill after hill, and vale after vale 
were patiently seanned, and diligently footed, without bringing the ex- 
pected boon. At length we came, without the expectation of it, to a small 
running stream in the plain, where we gladly encamped. There was 
also some grass which preserved a greenish hue, and which enabled our 
horse also to recruit himself 

Early the next morning we repacked him, and continued our course, 
travelling due west south-west. At the distance of five or six miles, we 
reached the banks of a clear stream of twenty feet wide, running over a 
bed of pebbles and small secondary boulders. This stream ran towards 
the north west, and gave us the first intimation we had, that we had 
crossed the summit and were on the off drain of the Missouri. We sup- 
posed it to be the source of the Gasconade, or at farthest some eastern tri- 
butary of the Little Osage. 

A few hours travelling brought us to the banks of another stream of 



56 ' ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



much larger size and depth, but running in the same direction. This 
stream we found it difficult to cross, and spent several hours in heaping 
piles of stone, and connecting them with dry limbs of trees, which had 
been carried down by floods. It had a rapid and deep current, on each 
side of which was a wide space of shallow water and rolled boulders of 
lime and sand stone. We succeeded in driving the horse safely over. 
Enobitti led the way on our frail bridge-work, but disturbed the last link 
of it as he jumped off on the south bank, so that it turned under my tread 
and let me in. There was no kind of danger in the fall as it was in the 
shallow part of the stream, but putting out my hands to break the fall, it so 
happened that my whole weight rested on ray gun, which was supported 
on two stones, merely on its butt and muzzle ; the effect was to wrench the 
barrel. I gave it a counter wrench as soon as we encamped, but I never 
afterwards could place full confidence in it. We had not gone over three 
or four miles beyond this river, when we came to the banks of a third 
stream, running west, but also sweeping off below, towards the north- 
west. This stream was smaller than the former and opposed no dif- 
ficulty in fording it. Having done this we followed it up a short distance, 
and encamped on its south banks. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Hearsay information of the hunters turns out false — We alter our course — A bear 

liunt An accident — Another rencontre with bears — Strike the source of the Great 

North Fork of White River — Journey down this valley — Its character and productions 

A great Spring — Incidents of the route — Pack horse rolls down a precipice — Plunges 

in the river — A cavern — Osage lodges — A hunter's hut. 

It was now manifest, from our crossing the last two streams, that we 
were going too far north — that we were in fact in the valley of the Mis- 
souri proper ; and that the information obtained of the hunters on the source 
of the Merrimack, was not to be imphcitly relied on. It is not probable that 
one of the persons who gave this information had ever been here. It was 
a region they were kept out of by the fear of the Osages, as our own ex- 
perience in the case of Roberts denoted. Willing to test it farther, how- 
ever, we followed down the last named stream a few miles, in the hope of 
its turning south or south-west, but it went off in another direction. We 
then came to a halt, and after consulting together, steered our course due 
south south-west, thus varying our general course from the caves. This 
carried us up a long range of wooded highlands. The forest here as- 
sumed a handsome growth. We passed through a track of the over-cup 
oak, interspersed with hickory, and had reached the summit of an elevated 
wooded ridge, when just as we gained the highest point, we discovered 
four bears on a large oak, in the valley before us. Three of the number 
were probably cubs, and with their dam, they were regaling themselves 
on the ripe acorns without observing us. We had sought no opportunities 
to hunt, and given up no especial time to it, but here was too fair a chal- 
lenge to be neglected. We tied our horse securely to a sapling, and then 
examining our pieces, and putting down an extra ball, set out to descend 
ihe hill as cautiously as possible. An unlucky slip of Enobitti threw him 
with force forward and sprained his ankle. He lay for a short time in 
agony. This noise alarmed the bears, who one after the other quickly 
ran in from the extremities of the Kmbs to the trunk, which they descended 

57 



58 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



head first, and scampered clumsily off up the valley. I pursued trtem 
without minding my companion, not knowing, indeed how badly he was 
hurt, but was compelled to give up the chase, as the tall grass finally pre- 
vented my seeing what course they had taken. I now returned to my 
companion. He could not stand at first, nor walk when he arose, and the 
first agony had passed. I proposed to mount him on the pack horse, and 
lead him slowly up the valley, and this plan was carried into effect. But 
he endured too much suffering to bear even this. The ankle began to in- 
flame. There was nothing but rest and continued repose that promised 
relief. I selected a fine grassy spot to encamp, unpacked the horse, built 
a fire, and got my patient comfortably stretched on his pallet. But little 
provision had been made at Potosi in the medical department. My whole 
store of pharmacy consisted of some pills and salves, and a few simple 
articles. The only thing I could think of as likely to be serviceable, was 
in our culinary pack, — it was a little sack of salt, and of this I made a 
solution in warm water and bathed the ankle. I then replenished the 
fire and cut some wood to renew it. It was still early in the day, and 
leaving my companion to rest, and to the effect of the remedy offered, I 
took my gUn and strolled over the adjoining hills, in hopes of bringing 
in some pigeons, or other small game. But it was a time of day when 
both birds and quadrupeds have finished their mornings repast, and retired 
to the groves or fastnesses. I saw nothing but the little grey bunting, 
and the noisy jay. When I returned to our camp in the vale I found my 
companion easier. The bathing had sensibljr alleviated the pain and 
swelling. It was therefore diligently renewed, and the next morning he 
was so far improved, that he consented to try the pack horse again. We had 
not, however, travelled far, when two large bears were seen before us play- 
ing in the grass, and so engaged in their sport, that they did not perceive us. 
We were now on the same level with them, and quickly prepared to give 
them battle. My companion dismounted as easily as possible, and having 
secured the horse and examined our arms, we reached a stand within firing 
distance. It was not till this moment that our approach was discovered by 
them, and the first thing they did after running a few yards, was to sit up in 
the grass and gaze at us. Having each singled his animal, we fired at the 
same instant. Both animals fled, but on reaching the spot where my 
mark had sat, blood was copiously found on the grass, and a pursuit was 
the consequence. I followed him up a long ridge, but he passed over the 
summit so far before me, that I lost sight of him. I came to a large hol- 
low black oak, in the direction he had disappeared, which showed the nail 
marks of some animal, which I believed to be his. While exa- 
mining these signs more closely my companion made his appear- 
ance. How he had got there I know not. The excitement had well 
nigh cured his ancle He stood by the orifice, while I went for 
the axe to our camp, and when I was tired chopping, he laid hold. 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 59 



We chopped alternately, and big as it was, the tree at last came down 
with a crash that made the forest ring-. For a few moments we looked at 
the huge and partly broken trunk as if a bear would i start from it ; but all 
was silence. We thoroughly searched the hollow part but found nothing. 
I went over another ridge of forest land, started a noble elk, but saw 
nothing more of my bear. Here terminated this adventure. We retraced 
our footsteps back to the valley, and proceeded on our route. This inci- 
dent had led us a little south of our true course ; and it so turned out that 
it was at a point, where a mile or two one way or the other, was calculated 
to make a wide difference in the place of our exit into the valley of White 
River ; for we were on a high broken summit ridge, from which several 
important streams originated. The pursuit of the bear had carried us 
near to the head of the valley, and by crossing the intervening summit, we 
found ourselves at the head springs of an important stream, which in due 
tune we learned was the Great North Fork of White River. This stream 
begins to develope itself m pools, or standing springs, which soak through 
the gravel and boulders, and it is many miles before it assumes the cha- 
racter of a continuous stream. Even then it proceeds in plateaux or 
steps, on which the water has a level, and the next succeeding level below 
it has its connection with it, through a rapid. In fact, the whole stream, 
till near its mouth, is one series of these lake-like levels, and short rapids, 
each level sinking lower and lower, till, like the locks in a canal, the last 
flows out on a level with its final recipient. But however its waters are 
congregated, they are all pure and colourless as rock crystal, and well vin- 
dicate the propriety of their original name of la Riviere Blanc. They all 
originate in mountain springs, are cool and sparkling, and give assurance 
in this feature, that they will carry health to the future inhabitants of the 
valley through which they flow. With the first springs begins to be seen 
a small growth of the cane, which is found a constant species on its bot- 
tom lands. This plant becomes high in more southern latitudes, and being 
intertwined with the green briar, renders it very diflicult, as we soon found, 
to penetrate it, especially with a horse. Man can endure a thousand ad- 
ventures and hardships where a horse would die ; and it would require no 
further testimony than this journey gave, to convince me, that providence 
designed the horse for a state of civilization. 

We followed the course of these waters about six miles, and emcamped. 
It was evidently the source of a stream of some note. It ran in the re- 
quired direction, and although we did not then know, that it was the 
valley of the Great North Fork of White River, we were satisfied it was * 
a tributary of the latter stream, and determined to pursue it. This we 
did for twelve days, before we met with a human being, white or red. It 
rapidly developed itself, as we went, and unfolded an important valley, of 
rich soil, bearing a vigorous growth of forest trees, and enclosed on either 
hand, by elevated limestone clifls. Nothing could exceed the purity of 



60 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



its waters, which bubbled up in copious springs, from the rock, or pebble 
stratum. For a long distance the stream increased from such accessions 
alone, without large and independent tributaries. On the second day's 
travel, we came to a spring, of this crystal character, which we judged to 
be about fifty feet across, at the point of its issue from the rock and soil. 
Its outlet after running about a thousand yards, joined the main stream, to 
which it brings a volume fully equal to it. This spring I named the Elk 
Spring, from the circumstance of finding a large pair of the horns of this 
animal, partly buried in the leaves, at a spot where I stooped down to 
drink. I took the horns, and hung them in the forks of a young oak 
tree. * 

We found abundance of game in this valley. There was not an entire 
day, I think, until we got near the hunters' camps, that we did not see 
either the bear, elk, or deer, or their recent signs. Flocks of the wild tur- 
key were of daily occurrence. The gray squirrel frequently sported on 
the trees, and as the stream increased in size, we found the duck, brant 
and swan. 

There were two serious objections, however, in travelling down a 
wooded valley. Its shrubbery was so thick and rank that it was next to 
impossible to force the pack horse through it. Wherever the cane abounds, 
and this comprehends all its true alluvions, it is found to be matted to- 
gether, as it were, with the green briar and grape vine. So much noise 
attended the effort at any rate, that the game generally fled before us, and 
had it not been for small game, we should have often wanted a meal. 
With every effort, we could not make an average of more than fourteen 
miles a day. The river was so tortuous too, that we could not count, 
on making more than half this distance, in a direct line. To remedy 
these evils we sometimes went out of the valley, on the open naked plains. 
It was a relief, but had, in the end, these difficulties, that while the plains 
exposed us to greater heats in travelling, they afforded no water, and we 
often lost much time in the necessity, we were under, towards night-fall, of 
going back to the valley for water. Neither was it found to be safe 
to travel far separated, for there were many causes of accident, which 
rendered mutual assistance desirable. One day, while Enobitti led the 
horse, and was conducting him from a lofty ridge, to get into the 
valley, the animal stumbled, and rolled to the bottom. We thought 
every bone in his body had been broke, but he had been protected by his 
pack, and we found that he was but little injured, and when repacked, 
still capable of going forward. On another occasion, I had been leading 
him for several hours, along a high terrace of cliffs on the left banks 
where this terrace was, as it were, suddenly cut off by the intersection of 
a lateral valley. The view was a sublime one, standing at the pinna- 
cle of junction ; but there was no possible way of descent, and it was neces- 
sary to retrace my steps, a long— long way. As an instance of the very 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



61 



tortuous character of this stream, I will mention that a rocky peninsula, 
causing a bend which it took my companion some two hours to pass, 
with the horse, I had crossed in less than twenty minutes, with my 
hammer and gun. When we had, as we supposed, become familiar 
with every species of impediment and delay, in descending the valley, a 
new, and very serious and unexpected one, arose one day, in crossing the 
stream, from the left to the right bank. It was my turn to be muleteer 
that day, and I had selected a ford where the river was not wide, and the 
water, apparently, some two or three feet deep. I judged from the clearness 
of the pebbles at the bottom, and their apparent nearness to the surface. 
But such was the transparency of the water, that a wide mistake was 
made. We had nearly lost the horse, he plunged in over head, could not 
touch bottom, and when with great ado, we had got him up the steep bank 
on the other side, he was completely exhausted. But this was not the extent 
of the evil. Our sugar and salt were dissolved. Our meal, of which a little 
still remained, was spoiled. Our tea was damaged, — our blankets and cloth- 
ing wetted, — our whole pack soaked. The horse had been so long in 
the water, in our often fruitless efforts to get him to some part of the bank 
depressed enough, to pull him up, that nothing had escaped its effects. 
We encamped on the spot, and spent the rest of the day in drying our 
effects, and expelling from our spare garments the superfluous moisture. 

The next day we struck out into the high plains, on the right bank, and 
made a good day's journey. The country was nearly level, denuded of 
trees, with sere autumnal grass. Often the prairie hen started up, but 
we saw nothing in the animal creation beside, save a few hares, as even- 
ing came on. To find water for the horse, and ourselves, we were 
again compelled to approach the valley. We at length entered a dry and 
desolate gorge, without grass or water. Night came on, but no sound 
or sight of water occurred. We were sinking deeper and deeper into the 
rocky structure of the country at every step, and soon found there were 
high cliffs on either side of us. What we most feared now occurred. It 
became dark, the clouds had threatened foul weather and it now began to 
rain. Had it not been for a cavern, which disclosed itself, in one of 
these calcareous cliffs, we must have passed a miserable night. On enter- 
ing it, we found a spring of water. It was too high in the cliff to get the 
horse in, but we carried him water in a vessel. He was afterwards hob- 
bled, and left to shift for himself On striking a fire, in the cave, its rays 
disclosed masses of stalactites, and a dark avenue into the rocks back. 
Having made a cup of tea and finished our repast, we determined to ex- 
plore the cave before lying down to rest, lest we might be intruded on by 
some wild animal before morning. A torch of pine wood was soon made, 
which guided our footsteps into the dismal recess, but we found nothing 
of the kind. On returning to our fire, near the mouth of the cave, we 
found the rain had increased to a heavy shower, and the vivid flashes of 



62 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 



lightning, illumined with momentary brilliancy, the dark and frowning 
precipices of this romantic gorge. The excitement and novelty of our po- 
sition, served to drive away sleep, notwithstanding a long day's march, and 
it was late before we sought repose. 

Morning brought a clear sky, but the horse was gone. He had fol- 
lowed on the back track, up the glen, in search of something to feed upon, 
and was not found till we reached the skirts of the plains. The whole 
morning was indeed, lost in reclaiming him, and we then set forward 
again and returned to the North Fork valley. We found it had assumed 
a greater expanse, at the point of our re-entry, which it maintained, and 
increased, as we pursued it down. Wide open oak plains extended 
on the left bank, which appeared very eligible for the purposes of set- 
tlement. On an oak tree, at this spot, we observed some marks, which 
had probably been made by some enterprising land explorer. With these 
improved evidences of its character for future occupation, we found the 
travelling easier. Within a few miles travel, we noticed a tributary com- 
ing in on the left bank, and at a lower point another on the left. The 
first stream had this peculiarity, that its waters came in at a right angle, 
with the parent stream, and with such velocity as to pass directly across 
its channel to the opposite bank. In this vicinity, we saw many of the 
deserted pole camps of the Osages, none of which appeared, however, to 
have been recently occupied. So far, indeed, we had met no hindrance, or 
annoyance from this people ; we had not even encountered a single mem- 
ber of the tribe, and felt assured that the accounts we had received of their 
cruelty and rapacity, had been grossly exaggerated, or if not wholly 
overcoloured, they must have related to a period in their history, which 
was now well nigh past. We could not learn that they had hunted on 
these lands, during late years, and were afterwards given to understand 
that they had ceded them to the United States by a treaty concluded at St. 
Louis. From whatever causes, however, the district had been left free 
from their roving parties, it was certain that the game had recovered un- 
der such a cessation of the chase. The black bear, deer and elk, were 
abundant. We also frequently saw signs of the labours of the beaver 
along the valley. I had the good luck, one day, while in advance wath 
my gun, of beholding two of these animals, at play in the stream, and ob- 
serving their graceful motions. My position was, within point blank shot 
of them, but I was screened from their gaze. I sat, with gun cocked, 
meaning to secure one of them after they came to the shore. Both ani- 
mals came out together, and sat on the bank at the edge of the river, a 
ledge of rocks being in the rear of them. The novelty of the sight led 
me to pause, and admire them, when, all of a sudden, they darted into a 
crevice in the rock. 

On the second day after re-entering the valley, we descried, on descend- 
ing a long slope of rising ground, a hunter'a cabin, covered with narrow 



ADVENTURES IN THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 63 

oak boards, split with a frow ; and were exhilarated with the idea of find- 
ing it occupied. But this turned out a delusive hope. It had been de- 
serted, from appearance, the year before. We found, among the surround- 
ing weeds, a few stems of the cotton plant, which had grown up from 
seeds, accidentally dropped. The bolls had opened. I picked out the 
cotton to serve as a material in lighting my camp fires, at night, this be- 
ing a labour which I had taken the exclusive management of The site 
of this camp, had been well chosen. There was a small stream in front, 
and a heavy rich cane bottom behind it, extending to the banks of the 
river. A handsome point of woodlands extended north of it, from the 
immediate door of the camp. And although somewhat early in the day, 
we determined to encamp, and soon made ourselves masters of the fabric, 
and sat down before a cheerful fire, with a title to occupancy, which there 
was no one to dispute. 



THE BIRD. 

VERSIFIED FROM THE GERMAN OF GESSNER: 1812. 

A swain, as he strayed through the grove, 
Had caught a young bird on a spray — 

What a gift, he exclaimed, for my love, 
How beautiful, charming, and gay. 

With rapture he viewed the fair prize, 
And listened with joy to its chat, 

As with haste to the meadow he hies 
To secure it beneath his straw hat. 

I will make of yon willows so gay, 
A cage for my prisoner to mourn, 

Then to Delia, the gift I'll convey. 
And beg for a kiss in return. 

She will grant me that one, I am sure, 
For a present so rare and so gay, 

And I easily can steal a few more 
And bear them enraptured away. 

He returned : but imagine his grief, 
The wind had his hat overthrown, 

And the bird, in the joy of relief. 
Away with his kisses had flown. 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE INDIAN RACE, 
DRAWN FROM NOTES OF TRAVEL AND RESIDENCE IN THEIR 
TERRITORIES. 

CHARACTER OF THE RED MAN OF AMERICA. 

Inquiry I. — ^What kind of a being is the North American Indian ? — Have we judged 
rightly of him ? — What are his peculiar traits, his affections, and liis intellectual 
qualities ? — Is he much influenced by his religion, his mode of government, and his 
complicated language. 

My earliest impressions of the Indian race, were drawn from the fire- ^ 
side rehearsals of incidents which had happened during the perilous 
times of the American revolution ; in which my father was a zealous actor, 
and were all inseparably connected with the fearful ideas of the Indian 
yell, the tomahawk, the scalping knife, and the fire brand. In these reci- 
tals, the Indian was depicted as the very impersonation of evil — a sort of 
wild demon, Avho delighted in nothing so much as blood and murder, 
Whether he had mind, was governed by any reasons, or even had any 
soul, nobody inquired, and nobody cared. It was always represented as a 
meritorious act in old revolutionary reminiscences, to have killed one oL 
them in the border wars, and thus aided in ridding the land of a cruel and 
unnatural race, in whom all feelings of pity, justice, and mercy, were 
supposed to be obliterated. These early ideas were sustained by printed 
narratives of captivity and hair-breadth escapes of men and women from 
their clutches, which, from time to time, fell into my hands, so that long 
before I was ten years old, I had a most definite and terrific idea impressed 
on my imagination of what was sometimes called in my native precincts, 
" the bow and arrow race." 

To give a definite conception of the Indian man, there lived in my na- 
tive valley, a family of Indians of the Iroquois stock, who often went off 

64 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



65 



their people in the west, and as often returned again, as if they were a 
troop of genii, or the ghosts of the departed, who came to haunt the nut 
wood forests, and sub-vallies of the sylvan Tawasenthaw, which their an- 
cestors had formerly possessed, and to which they still claimed some right. 
In this family, which was of the Oneida tribe, and consisted of the hus- 
band and wife, with two grown up sons, I first saw those characteristic 
features of the race, — namely, a red skin, with bright black eyes, and 
black straight hair. They were mild and docile in their deportment, angl 
were on friendly terms with the whole settlement, whom they furnished 
with neatly made baskets of the linden wood, split very thin, and coloured 
to impart variety, and with nice ash brooms. These fabrics made 
them welcome guests with every good housewife, who had forgotten the 
horrific stories of the revolution, and who was ever ready to give a chair 
and a plate, and a lodging place by the kitchen fire, to poor old Isaac and 
Anna, for so they had been named. What their original names were, 
nobody knew ; they had lived so long in the valley that they spoke the 
Dutch language, and never made use of their own, except when talking 
together; and I recollect, we thought it a matter of wonder, when they 
discoursed in Indian, whether such a guttural jargon, could possibly be 
the medium of conveying any very definite ideas. It seemed to be one 
undistinguished tissue of hard sounds, blending all parts of speech 
together. 

Had the boys of my own age, and I may say, the grown people^ 
stopped to reflect, and been led to consider this family and their race in 
America, independently of their gross acts, under the strong excitements 
of war and revenge, goaded by wrongs, and led on by the class of revo- 
lutionary tories, more implacable than even themselves, we must have 
seen, in the peaceable lives, quiet manners, and benevolent dispositions of 
these four people, a contradiction to, at least, some part, of the sweeping 
conclusions above noticed. But no such thoughts occurred. The word 
" Indian," was synonymous then, as perhaps now, with half the opprobri- 
ous epithets in the dictionary. I recollect to have myself made a few lines, 
in early life, on the subject, which ran thus : — 

Indians they were, ere Colon crossed the sea, 

And ages hence, they shall but Indians be. '"-^ 
Fortunately I was still young when my sphere of observation was en- 
larged, by seeing masses of them, in their native forests ; and I, after a few 
years, assumed a position as government agent to one of the leading tribes, 
at an age when opinions are not too firmly rooted to permit change. My 
opinions were still, very much however, what they had been in boyhood. 
I looked upon them as very cannibals and blood-thirsty fellows, who were 
only waiting a good opportunity to knock one in the head. But I regarded 
tnem as a curious subject of observation. The remembrance of poor old 
Isaac, had shown me that there was some feeling and humanity in their 



66 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



breasts, - 1 had seen many of them in my travels in the west, and I felt 
mclined to inquire into the traits of a people, among whom my duties had 
placed me, I had, from early youth, felt pleased with the study of natural 
history, and I thought the Indian, at least in his languages, might be 
studied with something of the same mode of exactitude, I had a strong 
propensity, at this time of life, for analysis, and I believed that something 
like an analytical process might be applied to enquiries, at least in the 
department of philology. Whenever a fact occurred, in the progress of 
my official duties, which I deemed characteristic, I made note of it, and in 
this way preserved a sort of skeleton of dates and events, which, it was 
believed, would be a source of useful future reference. It is, in truth, 
under advantages of the kind, that these remarks are commenced. 

The author has thrown out these remarks, as a starting point. He has 
made observations which do not, in all respects, coincide with the com- 
monly received opinions, and drawn some conclusions which are directly 
adverse to them. He has been placed in scenes and circumstances of 
varied interest, and met with many characters, in the course of four and 
twenty years' residence and travel in the wilds of America, who would 
have struck any observer as original and interesting. V/ith numbers of 
them, he has formed an intimate acquaintance, and with not a few, con- 
tracted lasting friendships. Connected with them by a long residence, by 
the exercise of official duties, and by still more delicate and sacred ties, he 
has been regarded by them as one identified with their history, and received 
many marks of their confidence. 

The Indians, viewed as a distinct branch of the human race, have some 
peculiar traits and institutions, from which their history and character may 
be advantageously studied. They hold some opinions, which are not 
easily discovered by a stranger, or a foreigner, but which yet exert a pow- 
erful influence on their conduct and life. There is a subtlety in some of 
their modes of thought and belief, on life and the existence of spiritual and 
creative power, which would seem to have been eliminated from some 
intellectual crucible, without the limits of their present sphere. Yet, there 
is much relative to all the common concerns of life, which is peculiar to 
it. The author has witnessed many practices and observances, such as 
travellers have often noticed, but like others, attributed them to accident, 
or to some cause widely different from the true one. By degrees, he has 
been admitted into their opinions, and if we may so call it, the philosophy 
of their minds ; and the life of an Indian no longer appears to him a 
mystery. He sees him acting, as other men would act, if placed exactly 
in his condition, prepared with the education the forest has given him, and 
surrounded with the same wants, temptations and dangers. 

The gentler affections are in much more extensive and powerful exer- 
cise among the Indian race, than is generally believed, although necessa- 
rily developed with less refinement than in civilized society. Their pater- 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 67 



nal and fraternal affections, have long been known to be very strong, as 
well as their veneration for the dead. It has been his province in these 
departments, to add some striking examples of their intensity of feeling 
and affection, and truthfulness to nature. 

The most powerful source of influence, with the Red man, is his religion. 
Here is the true groundwork of his hopes and his fears, and, it is believed, 
the fruitful source of his opinions and actions. It supplies the system of 
thought by which he lives and dies, and it constitutes, indeed, the basis 
of Indian character. By it he preserves his identity, as a barbarian, and 
Avhen this is taken away, and the true system substituted, he is still a Red 
Man. but no longer, in the popular sense, an Indian — a barbarian, a 
pagan. 

The Indian religion is a peculiar compound of rites, and doctrines, and 
observances, which are early taught the children by precept and example. 
In this respect, every bark-built village is a temple, and every forest a 
school. It would surprise any person to become acquainted with the 
variety and extent to which an Indian is influenced by his religious views 
and superstitions. He takes no important step without reference to it. 
It is his guiding motive in peace and in war. He follows the chace under 
its influence, and his very amusements take their tincture from it. To the 
author, the facts have been developing themselves for many years, and 
while he is able to account for the peculiar differences between the con- 
duct of Indians and that of white men, in given cases, he can easily per- 
ceive, why the latter have so often been unable to calculate the actions of 
the former, and even to account for them, when they have taken place. 
It may be here remarked, that the civihzed man, is no less a mysterious 
and unaccountable being to an Indian, because his springs of action are 
alike unintelligible to him. 

If the following pages shall aftbrd the public any means of judging of 
the Red Race, with greater accuracy, he hopes they may lead to our 
treating them with greater kindness and a more enlarged spirit of justice. 
The change which has been wrought in his own mind, by the facts he has 
witnessed, has been accompanied by a still more important one, as to their 
intellectual capacities and moral susceptibilities, and their consequent 
claims on the philanthropy of the age. As a class of men, it is thought 
their native speakers, without letters or education, possess a hio-her scope 
of thought and illustration, than the correspo?iding class in civilized life. 
This may be accounted for, perhaps, from obvious external causes, with- 
out impugning the actual native capacity of the lower, although educated 
classes of civilized life. Still, it is a very striking fact, and one which has 
very often forced itself on the attention of the author. The old idea that 
the Indian mind is not susceptible of a high, or an advantageous develope- 
ment, rests upon questionable data. The two principal causes, ^vhich 
have prolonged their continuance in a state of barbarism, on this continent. 



68 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



for so long a period, are a false religion, and false views of government. 
The first has kept back social prosperity and impeded the rise of virtue. 
With respect to government, during all the time we have had them for neigh- 
bours, they may be said to have had no government at all. Personal inde- 
pendence, has kept the petty chiefs from forming confederacies for the com- 
mon good. Individuals have surrendered no part of their original private 
rights, to secure the observance of the rest. There has been no public 
social organization, expressed or implied. The consequence has been that 
the law of private redress and revenge prevailed. In the only two cases 
where this system was departed from, in North America, namely that of 
the Azteek empire, and of the Iroquois confederacy, there was no lack of 
vigour to improve. The results were a constantly increasing pov/er, and 
extending degree of knowledge up to the respective eras of their conquest 
It was not want of mental capacity, so much as the non-existence of moral 
power, and of the doctrines of truth and virtue, that kept them back ; and 
left our own wandering tribes, particularly, with the bow and the spear in 
their hands. He believes, that their errors, in these particulars, may be 
pointed out, without drawing conclusions adverse to their political or 
social prosperity, under better auspicies, and without attributing such 
failures to mental imbecility. 

The mode of recording thought, among these tribes, by- means of pic- 
torial signs, and mnemonic symbols, has attracted particula r attention, and 
gives the author hopes, that he has been enabled to collect, and bring for- 
ward, a body of facts, in this department, which will recc immend them- 
selves by their interest and novelty. Confidence, inspired, by long resi- 
dence in their territories, revealed to him another trait of c haracter, in the 
existence among them of a traditionary imaginative lore, wl: lich is repeated 
from father to son, and has no small influence upon their s ocial condition. 
It is m these two departments, that, he believes, he has o] oened new and 
important means of judging of the Indian character, and discovered the 
sources of views and opinions, on many subjects, which ha d escaped pre- 
vious inquirers. 

There is one more point, to which he will here invite a momentary at- 
tention, and which, although not usually enumerated as a; tnong the prac- 
tical causes that influenced I^idian society and character, is yet behoved to 
exercise a strong, though silent sway, both upon the questio ^n of the mental 
character, and its true development. The author alludes to the topic of 
their languages. Some of the most venerated writers pres.ent a theory of 
the origin of national government languages and instituti ons, difficult or 
impossible to be conformed with the nature of man in ; society, and un- 
supported by such evidence as their doctrines require. Si ich, he regards, 
the theory of the "social compact," except it be viewed iia the most un- 
defined and general sense possible. Such, also, is the theory of the 
origin and improvement of languages. The system of go vemment gene- 



1 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSION^. 



69 



rally prevailing among the Indian tribes, is indeed so simple and natural, 
under their circumstances, that it is thought no person would long seek 
for the traces of any great legislator, giving them laws in any past period. 
When, however, we consider the curious structure of their languages, 
we find an ingenuity and complexity, far surpassing any theory to be 
discovered in that of the modern languages of Europe, with, perhaps, some 
exceptions in the Basque and Majyer, and even beyond any thing exist- 
ing in the Greek. As the latter has long been held up as a model, and 
the excellencies of its plan attributed to some unknown, but great and sa- 
gacious, learned and refined mind, we might feel justified in assigning 
the richness of forms, the exceeding flexibility, and the characteristic beau- 
ties and excellencies of the Indian tongues, to a mind of far superior wis- 
dom, ingenuity, and experience. Yet how perfectly gratuitous would this 
be ! All history bears testimony against the human invention and de- 
signed alteration of language ; and none but a mere theorist can ever em- 
brace the idea that it is, or ever was, in the power of any man, to fabricate 
and introduce a new language, or to effect a fundamental change in the 
groundwork of an existing one. This, at least, is the decided opinion 
of the author ; and he firmly believes, that whoever will contemplate 
the subject, amidst such scenes as he has been accustomed to, will inevita- 
bly come to the same conclusion. He has seen changes in dialects 
commenced and progressive, and indications of others going on, but these 
owed their origin and impulse to accidental circumstances, and were not 
the result of any plan or design. They were the result of necessity, 
convenience, or caprice. These three causes, that is to say, necessity 
convenience and caprice, if properly examined and appreciated in their 
influence, and traced with care to their effects, will develop the origin 
of many things, whose existence has been sought at too great a distance, 
or amidst too much refinement. 

Books, and the readers of books, have done much to bewilder and per- 
plex the study of the Indian cha;racter. Fewer theories and more obser- 
vation, less fancy and more fact, might have brought us to much more 
correct opinions than those which are now current. The Indian is, 
after all, believed to be a man, much more fully under the influence of 
common sense notions, and obvious every-day motives of thought and 
action, hope and fear, than he passes for. If he does not come to the 
same conclusions, on passing questions, as we do, it is precisely be- 
cause he sees the premises, under widely different circumstances. The 
admitted errors of barbarism and the admitted truths of civilization, are two 
very different codes. He is in want of almost every source of true know- 
ledge and opinion, which we possess. He has very imperfect notions 
on many of those branches of knowledge in what we suppose him best 
informed. He is totally in the dark as to others. His vague and 
vast and dreamy notions of the Great Author of Existence, and the mode 



70 PEK^WAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



of his manifestations to the human race, and the wide and complicated 
system of superstition and transcendental idolatry which he has reared 
upon this basis, place him, at once, with all his sympathies and theories, out 
of the great pale of truth and civilization. This is one of the leading 
circumstances which prevents him from drawing his conclusions as we 
draw them. Placed under precisely similar circumstances, we should 
perhaps coincide in his opinion and judgments. But aside from these er- 
roneous views, and after making just allowances for his ignorance and 
moral depression, the Indian is a man of plain common sense judg- 
ment, acting from what he knows, and sees, and feels, of objects immedi- 
ately before him, or palpable to his view. If he sometimes employs a 
highly figurative style to communicate his thoughts, and even stoops, as 
we now know he does, to amuse his fire-side circle with tales of extrava- 
gant and often wild demonic fancy, he is very far from being a man who, 
in his affairs of lands, and merchandize, and business, exchanges the sober 
thoughts of self preservation and subsistence, for the airy conceptions of 
fancy. The ties of consanguinity bind him strongly. The relation of 
the family is deep and well traced amongst the wildest tribes, and this 
fact alone forms a basis for bringing him back to all his original duties, 
and re-organizing Indian society. The author has, at least, been thrown 
into scenes and positions, in which this truth has strongly presented itself 
to his mind, and he believes the facts are of a character which will 
interest the reader, and may be of some use to the people themselves, 
so far as affects the benevolent plans of the age, if they do not constitute 
an increment in the body of observational testimony, of a practical nature, 
from which the character of the race is to be judged. 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS OF THE RED RACE, 
DRAWN FROM NOTES OF RESIDENCE AND TRAVEL IN THE IN- 
DIAN TERRITORIES. 



DOMESTIC CONDITION OF THE TRIBES AND CONSTUTION OF THE 
INDIAN FAMILY. 

iNauiRY II. — Wliat, is the domestic condition and organization of the Indian family? 

Is the tie of consanguinity strong, and what characteristic facts can be stated of it ? 
How are the domestic duties arranged ? What are the rights of each imnate of the 
lodge ? How is order maintained in so confined a space, and the general relations 
of the family preserved ? Are the relative duties and labours of the hunter and his 
wife, equally or unequally divided ? Who builds the lodge, and how is it constructed? 

There is a very striking ag-reement, in the condition, relative duties 
and obligations, of the Indian family, among nil the tribes of whom I 
have any personal knowledge, in North America. Climate and position, 
the abundance or want of the means of subsistence and other accidental 
causes, have created gradations of condition in the various tribes, some of 
whom excel others in expertness, in hunting and war, and other arts, but 
these circumstances have done little to alter the general characteristics, or to 
abridge or enlarge the original rights and claims of each inmate of the 
lodge. The tribes who cukivated maize in the rich sub-vallies and plains 
of the Ohio and Mississippi, had fuller means of both physical and mental 
development, than those who were, and still are, obliged to pick a scanty 
subsistence, among the frigid, and half marine regions in the latitudes 
north of the great lakes. There are some peculiar traits of manners, in 
the prairie-tribes, west of the Mississippi, who pursue the bison on horse 
back, and rely for their subsistence greatly, on its flesh, and the sale of its 
skin. The well fed Muscogee, Cherokee, or Choctaw, who lived in the 
sunny vallies of upper Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, the robust 
Osage, revelling in the abundance of corn and wild meat, south of the 

71 



72 PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 

Missouri, and the lean and rigid Montaignes, Muskeego, and Kenisteno, 
who push their canoes through waters choked with aquatic weeds, and 
wild rice, present very diiferent pictures of home and comfort, within their 
lodge doors. But they really prqsent the same idea, the same sentiments, 
and the same round of duties and obligations, of father and mother, sister 
and brother, wife and husband. The original type of the human family 
among them, is well preserved, better, indeed, than was to have been ex- 
pected in a state of barbarism, and among branches of the race who have 
been so long separated, and subjected to such severe vicissitudes. It 
would be useless, in this view, to draw a parallel between the relative con- 
dition of the members of a family, within, and without the pale of civiliza- 
tion. Nothing of the kind could be done, without showing up pictures 
of want in the hunter-life which are wholly unknown in the agricultural 
state. It cannot perhaps, in fair justice, be said that the tie of consan- 
guinity, in the man of the woods, is stronger, than in civilized life. But 
it is in accordance with all observation to say, that it is very strong, that 
its impulses beat with marked force, and are more free from the inter- 
twined ligaments of interest, which often weakens the tie of relationship in 
refined and affluent society. 

The true idea of matrimony, in Indian life, is also well set forth and 
acknowledged, although it has come down through ages of plunder and 
wandering, degraded in its condition, shorn of its just ceremonies, and 
weakened in its sacred character, I have observed that polygamy, among 
the northern tribes, is chiefly to be found, among bands who are favour- 
ably located, and have the best means of subsistence. But even here it is 
not reputable ; it may often increase a man's influence in the tribe or nation, 
but there are always persons in the wildest forests, who do not think the 
practice right or reputable. In the w^orst state of Indian society, there are 
=ilways some glimmerings of truth. If the conscience of the Red man 
may be compared to a lamp, it may be_said to have rather sunk low into its 
socket, than actually to have expired. The relation between husband 
and wife, in the forest, are formed under circumstances, which are gene- 
rally uniform. Various incidents, or motives determine a union. Some- 
times it is brought about by the intervention of friends ; sometimes from 
a sudden impulse of admiration ; sometimes with, and sometimes against 
the wishes of the graver and more prudent relatives of the parties. 
Where the husband is acceptable, and has not before been married, 
which covers the majority of cases, he comes to live for a while after mar- 
riage, in the lodge of his mother-in-law ; and this relation generally lasts 
until the increase of children, or other circumstances determine his setting 
lip a lodge for himself Presents are still a ready way for a young hun- 
ter to render himself acceptable m a lodge. There are some instances, 
where considerable ceremony, and the invitation of friends, have attended 
the first reception of the bridegroom, at the lodge ; but these are in most ^ 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



73 



cases, what we should denominate matches of state, or expediency, in 
which the bravery, or other public services of a chief or leader, has in- 
clined his village to think, that his merits deserve the reward of a wife. 
Generally, the acceptance of the visitor by the party most interested, and 
her mother and father, and their expressed, or tacit consent, is the only 
preliminary, and this is done in a private way. The only ceremonial 
observance, of which I haVe ever heard, is the assigning of what is called 
an abbinos, or permanent lodge seat, to the bridegroom. When this has 
been done, by the mother or mistress of the lodge, who governs these 
things, he is received, and henceforth installed as a constituent member of 
the lodge and family. The simple rule is, that he who has a right to sit 
by the bride, is her husband. 

The lodge itself, with all its arrangements, is the precinct of the rule 
and government of the wife. She assigns to each member, his or her or- 
dinary place to sleep and put their effects. These places are permanent, 
and only changed at her will, as when there is a guest by day or night 
In a space so small as a lodge this system preserves order, and being at all 
times under her own eye, is enforced by personal supervision. The hus- 
band has no voice in this matter, and I have never heard of an instance in 
which he would so far deviate from his position, as to interfere in these 
minor particulars. The lodge is her precinct, the forest his. 

There is no law, nor force, to prevent an Indian from decreeing his 
own divorce, that is to say, leaving one wife and taking another whenever 
he sees cause. Yet it often occurs that there is some plausible pretext for 
such a step, such as if true, would form some justification of the measure. 
The best protection to married females arises from the ties of children, 
which by bringing into play the strong natural affections of the heart, and 
appeals at once to that principle in man's original organization, which is 
the strongest. The average number of children borne by the women, and 
which reach the adult period is small, and will scarcely exceed two. On 
the pay rolls it did not exceed this. Much of this extraordinary result is 
owing to their erratic mode of life, and their cramped means of subsis- 
tence. Another cause is to be found in the accidents and exposure to 
which young children are liable, but still more to their shocking ignorance 
of medicine. I once* knew a child at three years of age to be killed by 
an attempt to restore a deranged state of the bowels, by a strong overdose 
of an astringent tincture of hemlock bark administered by her father. 
This man, who was called Attack, had strong natural affections, but he 
was very ignorant even in the eyes of the Indian race, being one of that 
people living N. E, of lake Superior, who are called variously Gens de 
Terres, Mountaineers, and Muskeegoes. Wherever the laws of reproduc 
tion are relieved from these depressing circumstances, the number of chii 
dren is seen to be increased. 

The chief laba-Waddick, who lived on a small bay at the foot of lake 



74 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



Superior, and had abundance of means of subsistence, had fourteen chil- 
dren by one wife. He was an excellent hunter, and of habits for the 
most part of his life, strictly temperate ; he had married young, and had 
always had the means of providing his familf with adequate clothing and 
food. Not one of these children died in infancy. He lived himself to b^ 
old, and died rather from, a complaint induced by constitutional structure, 
than from a natural decay of vital power. 

The duties and labours of Indian life, are believed to be equally, and 
not, as has been generally thought, unequally divided between the male 
and female. This division is also the most natural possible, and such as 
must ever result from the condition of man, as a mere hunter. It is the 
duty of the male to provide food, and of the female to prepare it. This 
arrangement carries with it to the share of the male, all that relates to ex- 
ternal concerns, and all that pertains to the internal to the care of the female 
as completely as is done in civilized life. To the man belongs not only the 
business of hunting, for this is an employment and not a pastime^ but the 
care of the territory, and keeping off intruders and enemies, and the pre- 
paration of canoes for travel, and of arms and implements of war. The 
duties of cooking and dressing meats and fowl, and whatever else the 
chase affords, carries on the other hand, to the share of the hunter's wife, 
the entire care and controul of the lodge, with its structure and removal, 
and the keeping it in order, with all its utensils and apparatus. A good 
and frugal hunter's wife, makes all this a point of ambitious interest, and 
takes a pride in keeping it neat and proper for the reception of her hus- 
band's guests. She sweeps the earth clean around the fire, with a broom 
of branches of the cedar constructed for this purpose. This lodge it is tc 
be remembered, is made not of beams and posts, and heavy carpentry, 
but out of thin poles, such as a child can lift, set in the ground in a circle, 
bent over and tied at the top, and sheathed with long sheets of the white birch 
bark. A rim of cedar wood at the bottom, assimilates these birch bark 
sheets to the roller of a map, to which in stormy weather a stone is at- 
tached to hold it firm. This stick has also the precise use of a map- 
roller, for when the lodge is to be removed, the bark is rolled on it, and 
in this shape carried to the canoe, to be set up elsewhere. The circle 
of sticks or frame, is always left standing, as it would be useless to en- 
cumber the canoe with what can easily be had at any position in a forest 
country. 

Such at least is the hunting lodge, and indeed, the lodge generally 
used by the tribes north of lattitude 42°. It is, in its figure, a half globe, 
and by its lightness and wicker-like structure, may be said to resemble an 
inverted bird's nest. The whole amount of the transportable materials of 
it, is often comprehended in some half a dozen good rolls of bark, and as 
many of rush mats which the merest girl can easily lift. The mats which 
are the substitute for floor cloths, and also the under stratum of the sleep- 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



75 



ing couch, are made out of the common lacustris or bullrush, or the 
flag, cut at the proper season, and woven in a warp of fine hemp net 
thread, such as is furnished by traders in the present state of the Indian 
trade. A portion of this soft vegetable woof, is dyed, and woven in vari- 
ous colours. Lodges thus constructed are to be still abundantly seen, 
by the summer visitor, in the upper lakes, at all the principal points, to 
which the Indians resort, during the height of summer. Such are the 
posts of Michilimackinac, Sault Ste. Marie, and Green Bay. At Michili- 
mackinac, where it is now difficult to get fresh lodge poles, without going 
some distance, or trespassing on private rights, the natives who resort thi- 
ther, of late years, have adopted an ingenious change, by which two ob- 
jects are accomplished at the same time, and the labour of the females dis- 
pensed with in getting new poles. It is known, that the bark canoe, be- 
ing itself but an enlarged species of wicker work, has not sufficient 
strength to be freighted, without previously having a number of poles laid 
longitudinally, in the bottom, as a kind of vertebral support. These poles 
on landing upon the gravelly shores of that island, are set up, or stacked 
to use a military phrase, that is tying the tops together and then drawing- 
out the other ends so as to describe a circle, and thus making a perfect 
cone. The bark tapestry is hung around these poles very much as it 
would be around the globular close lodges ; and by this arrangement, an 
Indian lodge is raised, and ready for occupation, in as many minutes, 
after landing, as the most expert soldiers could pitch a tent in. 

Before we can affirm that the labour of preparing these barks and mats 
and setting up, and taking down, the lodge, is disproportionately great, 
or heavy on the females, it will be necessary to inquire into other particu- 
lars, both on the side of the male and female. Much of the time of an In- 
dian female, is passed in idleness. This is true not only of a part of every 
day, but is emphatically so, of certain seasons of the year. She has not 
like the farmer's wife, her cows to milk, her butter and cheese to make, 
and her flax to spin. She has not to wash and comb and prepare her 
children every morning, to go to school. She has no extensive or fine 
wardrobe to take care of She has no books to read. She sets little value 
on time, which is characteristic of all the race. What she does, is either 
very plain sewing, or some very pains taking ornamental thing. When 
the sheathing and flooring of the lodges are once made, they ^re 
permanent pieces of property, and do not require frequent renewal. 
When a skin has been dressed, and a garment made of it, it is worn, 
till it is worn out. Frequent ablution and change of dress, are eminentlj'^ 
the traits of high civilization, and not of the hunter's lodge. The 
articles which enter into the mysteries of the laundry, add but little to 
the cares of a forest housekeeper. With every industrial effort, and 
such is, somtimes the case, there is much unoccupied time, while her hus- 
band is compelled by their necessities, to traverse large tracts, and endure 



76 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



great fatigues, in all weathers in quest of food. He must defend his hunt- 
ing grounds, in peace and war, and has his life daily in his hands- 
Long absences are often necessary, on these accounts. It is at such times, 
during the open season, that the Indian female exerts her industry. In 
the fall season, she takes her children in a canoe, or if she have none, in- 
vites a female companion to go with her, along the streams, to cut the 
rush, to be manufactured into mats, at her leisure, in the winter. It is 
also a part of her duty, at all seasons, to provide fuel for the lodge fire, 
which she is careful to do, that she may suitably receive her husband, on 
his return from the chase, and have the means of drying his wet mocca- 
sins, and a cheerful spot, where he may light his pipe, and regain his mental 
equilibrium, while she prepares his meals. The very idea of a female's 
chopping wood, is to some horriffic. But it is quite true that the Indian 
female does chop wood, or at least, exert an undue labour, in procuring 
this necessary article of the household. In speaking of the female, we, at 
once, rush to the poetic idea of the refinement of lady like gentleness, and 
delicacy. Not only does the nature of savage life and the hardiness of 
muscle created by centuries of forest vicissitude, give the hunter's wife, 
but a slender claim on this particular shade of character, but the kind ot 
labour implied, is very different from the notion civilized men have of 
" wood chopping." The emigrant swings a heavy axe of six pounds 
weight, incessantly, day m, and day out^ against immense trees, in the 
heaviest forest, until he has opened the land to the rays of the sun, and 
prepared an amount of cyclopean labours for the power of fire, and the 
ox. The hunter clears no forests, the limits of which on the contrary, he 
carefully cherishes for his deer to range in. He seats himself down, with 
his lodge, in the borders of natural glades, or meadows, to plant his few 
hills of maize. He had no metallic axe, capable of cutting down a tree, 
before 1492, and he has never learned to wield a heavy axe up to 1844, 
His wife, always made her lodge fires by gathering sticks, and she does 
so still. She takes a hatchet of one or two pounds weight, and after 
collecting dry limbs in the forest, she breaks them, into lengths of about 
18 inches, and ties them in bundles, or faggots, and carries them, at her 
leisure, to her lodge. Small as these sticks are, in their length and diame- 
ter, but few are required to boil her pot. The lodge, being of small cir 
cumference, but little heat is required to warm the air, and by suspending 
the pot by a string from above, over a small blaze, the object is attained, 
without that extraordinary expenditure of wood, which, to the perfect 
amazement of the Indian, characterizes the emigrant's roaring fire of logs. 
The few fields which the Indians have cleared and prepared for corn fields, 
in northern latitudes, are generally to be traced to some adventitious opening, 
and have been enlarged very slowly. Hence, I have observed, that when 
they have come to be appraised, to fix their value as improvements upon 
the land, under treaty provisions, that the amount thereof may be paid the 



PERSONAL INCIDENTS AND IMPRESSIONS. 



77 



owner, they have uniformly set a high estimate upon these ancient clear- 
mgs, and sometimes regarded their value, one would think, in the inverse 
proportion of these limits. As if, indeed, there were some merit, in having 
but half an acre of cleared ground, where, it might be supposed, the owner 
would have cultivated ten acres. And this half acre, is to be regarded as 
the industrial snm of the agricultural labours of all ages and sexes, during 
perhaps, ten generations. Could the whole of this physical effort, there- 
fore, be traced to female hands, which is doubtful, for the old men and 
boys, will often do something, it would not be a very severe imposition. 
There is at least, a good deal, it is believed, in this view of the domestic 
condition of the women to mitigate the severity of judgment, with which 
the proud and labour-hating hunter, has sometimes been vi^ted. He hasT] 
in our view, the most important part of the relative duties of Indian life, ! 
to sustain. In the lodge he is a mild, considerate man, of the non-interfering ! 
and non-scolding species. He may indeed, be looked upon, rather as the | 
guest of his wife, than what he is often represented to be. her tyrant, and j 
he is often only known as the lord of the lodge, by the attention and res- ; 
pect which she shows to him. He is a man of few words. If her temper 
is ruffled, he smiles. If he is displeased, he walks away. It is a. pro- 
vince in which his actions acknowledge her right to rule ; and it is one, 
in which his pride and manliness have exalted him above the folly of al- 
tercation. 



THE MANITO TREE. 



There is a prominent hill in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, at the out- 
let of lake Superior, called by the French La Butte des Terres. An In- 
dian footpath formerly connected this hill with the old French settlement 
at those falls, from which it is distant about a mile. In the interm.ediate 
space, near the path, there formerly stood a tree, a large mountain ash, 
from which, Indian tradition says, there issued a sound, resembling- that 
produced by their own war-drums, during one of the most calm and 
cloudless days. This occurred long before the French appeared in the 
country. It was consequently regarded as the local residence of a spirit, 
and deemed sacred. 

From that time they began to deposit at its foot, an offering of small 
green twigs and boughs, whenever they passed the path, so that, in pro- 
cess of time, a high pile of these offerings of the forest was accumulated. 
It seemed as if, by this procedure, the other trees had each made an offer- 
ing to this tree. At length the tree blew down, during a violent storm, 
and has since entirely decayed, but the spot was recollected and the offer- 
ings kept up, and they would have been continued to the present hour, 
had not an accidental circumstance put a stop to it. 

In the month of July 1822, the government sent a militar}'- force to take 
post, at that ancient point of French settlement, at the foot of the falls, and 
one of the first acts of the commanding officer was to order out a fatigue 
party to cut a wagon road from the selected site of the post to the hill. This 
road was directed to be cut sixty feet wide, and it passed over the site of 
the tree. The pile of offerings was thus removed, without the men's 
knowing that it ever had had a superstitious origin ; and thus the practice 
itself came to an end. I had landed with the troops, and been at the place 
but nine days, in the exercise of my appropriate duties as an Agent on the 
part of the government to the tribe, when this trait of character was men- 
tioned to me, and I was thus made personally acquainted with the locality, 
the cutting of the road, and the final extinction of the rite. 

Our Indians are rather prone to regard the coming of the white man, 
ai fulfilling certain obscure prophecies of their own priests ; and that they 
are. at best, harbingers of evil to them ; and with their usual belief in, 
fatality, they tacitly drop such rites as the foregoing. They can excuse 
themselves to their consciences in such cases, in relinquishing the wor- 
ship of a local manito, by saying : it is the tread of the white man that 
has desecrated the ground. 

78 



TALES OF A ¥ia¥AM. 



THE WHITE STONE CANOE. 

There was once a very beautiful young girl, who died suddenly on the 
day she was to have been married to a handsome young man. He was 
also brave, but his heart was not proof against this loss. From the 
hour she was buried, there was no more joy or peace for him. He went 
often to visit the spot where the women had buried her, and sat musing 
there, when, it was thought, by some of his friends, he would have done 
better to try to amuse himself in the chase, or by diverting his thoughts in 
the war-path. But war and hunting had both lost their charms for him. 
His heart was already dead within him. He pushed aside both his 
war-club and his bow and arrows. 

He had heard the old people say, that there was a path, that led to the 
land of souls, and he determined to follow it. He accordingly set out, 
one morning, after having completed his preparations for the journey. 
At first he hardly knew which way to go. He was only guided by the 
tradition that he must go south. For a Mobile, he could see no change in 
the face of the country. Forests, and hills, and vallies, and streams had 
the same looks, which they wore in his native place. There was snow 
on the ground, when he set out, and it was sometimes seen to be piled 
and matted on the thick trees and bushes. At length, it beofan to dimin- 
ish, and finally disappeared. The forest assumed a more cheerful ap- 
pearance, the leaves put forth their buds, and before he was aware of 
the completeness of the change, he found himself surrounded by spring. 
He had left behind him the land of snow and ice. The air became 
mild, the dark clouds of winter had rolled away from the sky ; a pure 
field of blue was above him, and as he Avent he saw flowers beside his 
path, and heard the songs of birds. By these signs he knew that he was 
going the right way, for they agreed with the traditions of his tribe. At 
length he spied a path. It led him through a grove, then up a long and 
elevated ridge, on the very top of which he came to a lodge. At the 
door stood an old man, with white hair, whose eyes, though deeply sunk, 
had a fiery brilliancy. He had a long robe of skins thrown loosely 

around his shoulders, and a staff in his hands. 

' 79 



80 



THE WHITE STONE CANOE. 



The young Chippewayan began to tell his story ; but the venerable chief 
arrested him, before he had proceeded to speak ten words. I have expected 
you, he replied, and had just risen to bid you v^^elcome to my abode. She. 
whom you seek, passed here but a few days since, and being fatigued with 
her journey, rested herself here. Enter my lodge and be seated, and I 
wfil then satisfy your enquiries, and give you directions for your journey 
from this point. Having done this, they both issued forth to the lodge door. 
" You see yonder gulf, said he, and the wide stretching blue plains be- 
yond. It is the land of souls. You stand upon its borders, and my lodge 
is the, gate of entrance. But you cannot take your body along. Leave it 
here with your bow and arrows, your bundle and your dog. You will 
find them safe on your return." So saying, he re-entered the lodge, and 
the freed traveller bounded forward, as if his feet had suddenly been endow- 
ed with the power of wings. But all things retained their natural colours 
and shapes. The woods and leaves, and streams and lakes, were only 
more bright and comely than he had ever witnessed. Animals bounded 
across his path, with a freedom and a confidence which seemed to tell 
him, there was no blood shed here. Birds of beautiful plumage inhabit- 
ed the groves, and sported in the waters. There was but one thing, in 
which he saw a very unusual effect. He noticed that his passage was 
not stopped by trees or other objects. He appeared to walk directly 
through them. They were, in fact, but the souls or shadows of material 
trees. He became sensible that he was in a land of shadows. When 
he had travelled half a day's journey, through a country which was con- 
tinually becoming more attractive, he came to the banks of a broad lake, 
in the centre of which was a large and beautiful island. He found a 
canoe of shining white stone, tied to the shore. He w^as now sure that 
he had come the right path, for the aged man had told him of this. There 
were also shinmg paddles. He immediately entered the canoe, and took 
the paddles in his hands, when to his joy and surprise, on turning round, 
he beheld the object of his search in another canoe, exactly its counter- 
part in every thing. She had exactly imitated his motions, and they were 
side by side. They at once pushed out from shore and began to cross 
the lake. Its waves seemed to be rising and at a distance looked ready to 
swallow them up ; but just as they entered the whitened edge of them 
they seemed to melt away, as if they were but the images of waves. But 
no sooner was one wreath of foam passed, than another, more threaten- 
ing still, rose up. Thus they were in perpetual fear ; and what added to 
it, was the clearness of the water, through which they could see heaps of 
bemgs who had perished before, and whose bones laid strewed on the 
bottom of the lake. The Master of Life had, however, decreed to let them 
pass, for the actions of neither of them had been bad. But they saw many 
others struggling and sinking in the waves. Old men and young men, 
males and females of all ages and ranks, were there ; some passed, and 



THE WHITE STONE CANOE. 



81 



some sank. It was only the little children whose canoes seemed to meet 
no waves. At length, every difficulty was gone, as in a moment, and 
they both leapt out on the happy island. They felt that the very air 
was food. It strengthened and nourished them. They wandered to- 
gether over the bhssful fields, where every thing was formed to please the 
eye and the ear. There vv^ere no tempests — there was no ice, no chilly 
winds — no one shivered for the want of warm clothes: no one suffered 
for hunger — no one mourned for the dead. They saw no graves. They 
heard of no wars. There was no hunting of anmials; for the air itself 
was their food. Gladly would the young warrior have remained there 
forever, but he was obliged to go back for his body. He did not see 
the Master of Life, but he heard his voice in a soft breeze: "Go back, 
said this voice, to the land from whence you came. - Your time has not 
yet come. The duties for which I made you, and which you are to per- 
form, are not yet finished. Return to your people, and accomplish 
the duties of a good man. You will be the ruler of your tribe for many 
days. The rules you must observe, will be told you by my messenger, 
who keeps the gate. When he surrenders back your body, he will tell 
you what to do. Listen to him, and you shall afterwards rejoin the spirit, 
which you must now leave behind. She is accepted and will be ever 
here, as young and as happy as she was when I first called her from the 
land of snows." When this voice ceased, the narrator awoke. It was 
the fancy work of a dream, and he was still in the bitter land of snows, 
and hunger and tears. 



THE 

LYNI AND THE HARE. 

A FABLE FROM THE JIBWA-ALGONQUIN. 

A LYNX almost famished, met a hare one day in the woods, in the winter 
season, but the hare was separated from its enemy by a rock, upon which 
it 5tood. The lynx began to speak to it in a very kind manner. " Wa- 
bose! Wabose * said he, " come here my little white one, I wish to talk 
to you." " O no," said the hare, " I am afraid of you, and my mother 
told me never to go and talk with strangers." " You are very pretty," 
replied the lynx, " and a very obedient child to your parents ; but you must 
know that I am a relative of yours ; I wish to send some word to your 
lodge ; come down and see me." The hare was pleased to be called pretty, 
and when she heard that it was a relative, she jumped down from the 
place where she stood, and immediately the lynx pounced upon her and 
tore her to pieces. 

* This word appears to be a derivation from the radix Wawb, white. The termi- 
nation in is the objective sign. The term is made diminutive in s. 

6 



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN, 



AN OTTOWA TRADITION, 



A LONG time ago, there lived an aged Odjibwa and his wife, on the 
shores of Lake Huron. They had an only son, a very beautiful boy, 
whose name was 0-na-wut-a-qut-o, or he that catches the clouds. The 
iamily were of the totem of the beaver. The parents were very proud 
of him, and thought to make him a celebrated man, but when he reached 
the proper age, he would not submit to the We-koon-de-win, or fast. 
When this time arrived, they gave him charcoal, instead of his breakfast, 
but he would not blacken his face. If they denied him food, he would 
seek for birds' eggs, along the shore, or pick up the heads of fish that had 
been cast away, and broil them. One day, they took away violently the 
food he had thus prepared, and cast him some coals in place of it. This 
act brought him to a decision. He took the coals and blackened his face, 
• and went out of the lodge. He did not return, but slept without; and 
during the night, he had a dream. He dreamed that he saw a very 
beautiful female come down from the clouds and stand by his side. O- 
no-wut-a-qut-o," said she, "I am come for you — step in my tracksr." The 
young man did so, and presently felt himself ascending above the tops of 
the trees — he m.ounted up, step by step, into the air, and through the 
clouds. His guide, at length, passed through an orifice, and he, following 
her, found himself standing on a beautiful plain. 

A path led to a splendid lodge. He followed her into it. It was large, 
and divided into two parts. On one end he saw bows and arrows, clubs 
and spears, and various warlike implements tipped with silver. On the 
other end, were things exclusively belonging to females. This was the 
home of his fair guide, and he saw that she had, on the frame, a broad 
rich belt, of many colours, which she was weaving. She said to him : 
"My brother is coming and I must hide you." Putting him in one cor- 
ner, she spread the belt over him. Presently the brother came in, very 
richly dressed, and shining as if he had had points of silver all over him. 
He took down from the wall a splendid pipe, together with his sack of a- 
pa-ko-ze-gun, or sm^oking mixture. When he had finished regaling him- 
self in this way, and laid his pipe aside, he said to his sister : " Nemissa,' 
(which is, my elder sister,) "when will you quit these practices? Do you 
forget that the Greatest of the Spirits has commanded that you should not 

82 



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN. 



83 



take away the children from below? Perhaps you suppose that you have 
concealed 0-na-wut-a-qut-o, but do I not know of his coming? If you 
would not offend me, send him back immediately." But this address did 
not alter her purpose. She would not send him back. Finding that she 
was purposed in her mind, he then spoke to the young lad, and called him 
from his hiding place. '-Come out of your concealment," said he, "and 
walk about and amuse yourself You will grow hungry if you remain 
there." He then presented him a bow and arrows, and a pipe of red stone, 
richly ornamented. This was taken as the word of consent to his mar- 
riage ; so the two were considered husband and wife from that time 

0-no-wut-a-qut-o found ever}^ thing exceedingly fair and beautiful around 
him, but he found no inhabitants except her brother. There were flowers 
on the plains. There were bright and sparkling streams. There were 
green vallies and pleasant trees. There were gay birds and beautiful 
animals, but they were not such as he had been accustomed to see. There 
was also day and night, as on the earth ; but he observed that every morn- 
ing the brother regularly left the lodge, and remained absent all day; and 
every evening the sister departed, though it was commonly but for a part 
of the night. 

His curiosity was aroused to solve this mystery. He obtained the 
brother's consent to accompany him in one of his daily journies. They 
travelled over a smooth plain, without boundaries, until 0-no-wut-a-qut-o 
felt the gnawings of appetite, and asked his companion if there were no 
game. "Patience! my brother," said he, "we shall soon reach the spot 
where I eat my dinner, and you will then see how I am provided." After 
walking on a long time, they came to a place which was spread over with 
fine mats, where they sat down to refresh themseJves. There was, at this 
place, a hole through the sky ; and 0-no-wut-a-qut-o, looked down, at the 
bidding of his companion, upon the earth. He saw below the great lakes^ 
and the villages of the Indians. In one place, he saw a war party steal- 
ing on the camp of their enemies. In another, he saw feasting and dancing. 
On a green plain, young men were engaged at ball. Along a stream, 
women were employed in gathering the a-puk-v,'a for mats. 

"Do you see," said the brother, "that group of children playing beside 
a lodge. Observe that beautifal and active boy," said he, at the same time 
darting something at him, from his hand. The child immediately fell, 
and was carried into the lodge. 

They looked again, and saw the people gathering about the lodge. 
They heard the she-she-gwan of the meeta, and the song he sung, asking 
that the child's life might be spared. To this request, the companion of 
0-no-wut-a-qut-o made answer — "'send me up the sacrifice of a white dog." 
Immediately a feast was ordered by the parents of the child, the white dog 
was kiUed, his carcass was roasted, and all the wise men and medicine 
men of the village assembled to witness the ceremony. " There are many 



84 



THE WORSHIP OP THE SUN. 



below," continued the voice of the brother, "whom you callgreaA in med- 
ical skill, but it is because their ears are open, and they listen to my 
voice, that they are able to succeed. When I have struck one with sick- 
ness, they direct the people to look to me: and when they send me the 
offering I ask, I remove my hand from off them, and they are well." 
After he had said this, they saw the sacrifice parcelled out in dishes, for 
those who were at the feast. The master of the feast then said, "we send 
this to thee. Great Manito," and immediately the roasted animal came up. 
Thus their dinner was supplied, and after they had eaten, they returned 
to the lodge by another way. 

After this manner they lived for some time; but the place became 
wearisome at last. 0-no-wut-a-qut-o thought of his friends, and wished 
to go back to them. He had not forgotten his native village, and his 
father's lodge; and he asked leave of his wife, to return. At length 
she consented. " Since you are better pleased," she replied, with the 
cares and the ills, and the poverty of the world, than with the peaceful 
delights of the sky, and its boundless prairies, go ! I give you permission, 
and since I have brought you hither, I will conduct you back; but re- 
member, you are still my husband, I hold a chain in my hand by which 
I can draw you back, whenever I will. My power over you is not, in any 
manner, diminished. Beware, therefore, how you venture to take a wife 
among the people below. Should you ever do so, it is then that you shall 
feel the force of my displeasure." 

As she said this, her eyes sparkled — she raised herself slightly on her 
toes, and stretched herself up, with a majestic air; and at that moment, O- 
no-wut-a-qut-o awoke from his dream. He found himself on the ground, 
near his father's lodge, at the very spot where he had laid himself down 
to fast. Instead of the bright beings of a higher world, he found himself 
surrounded by his parents and relatives. His mother told him he had 
been absent a year. The change was so great, that he remained for some 
time moody and abstracted, but by degrees, he recovered his spirits. He 
began to doubt the reality of all he had heard and seen above. At last, 
he forgot the admonitions of his spouse, and married a beautiful young 
v/oman of his own tribe. But within four days, she was a corpse. Even 
the fearful admonition was lost, and he repeated the offence by a 
second marriage. Soon afterwards, he went out of the lodge, one night, 
but never returned. It was believed that his wife had recalled him to the 
region of the clouds, where the tradition asserts, he still dwells, and walks 
on the daily rounds, which he once witnessed. 



The native tribes are a people without maxims : One of the few which 
have been noticed is this : Do not tell a story in the summer ; if you do, 
the toads will visit you. 



SHINGEBISS. 



FROM THE ODJIBWA-ALGONQ.UIN, 

There was once a Shingebiss, [the name of a kind of duck] living alone, 
in a solitary lodge, on the shores of the deep bay of a lake, in the coldest 
winter weather. The ice had formed on the water, and he had but four 
logs of wood to keep his fire. Each of these, would, however, burn a 
month, and as there were but four cold winter months, they were sufficient 
to carry him through till spring. 

Shingebiss was hardy and fearless, and cared for no one. He would 
go out during the coldest day, and seek for places where flags and rushes 
grew through the ice, and plucking them up with his bill, would dive 
through the openings, in quest of fish. In this way he found plenty of 
food, while others were starving, and he went home daily to his lodge, 
dragging strings of fish after him, on the ice. 

Kabebonicca * observed him, and felt a little piqued at his perseverance 
and good luck in defiance of the severest blasts of wind he could send 
from the northwest. " Why ! this is a wonderful man," said he ; " he does 
not mind the cold, and appears as - happy and contented, as if it were the 
month of June. I will try, whether he cannot be mastered." He poured 
forth ten-fold colder blasts, and drifts of snow, so that it was next to impos- 
sible to live in the open air. Still the fire of Shingebiss did not go out : 
he wore but a single strip of leather around his body, and he was seen, in 
the worst weather, searching the shores for rushes, and carrying home fish. 

" I shall go and visit him," said Kabebonicca, one day, as he saw Shin- 
gebiss dragging along a quantity of fish. And accordingly, that very 
night, he went to the door of his lodge. Meantime Shingebiss had cooked 
his fish, and finished his meal, and was lying, partly on his side, before 
the fire singing his songs. After Kabebonicca had come to the door, and 
stood listening there, he sang as follows : 



Ka 


Neej 


Ka 


Neej 


Be 


In 


Be 


In 


Bon 


In 


Bon 


In 


Oc 


Ee. 


Oc 


Ee. 


Ca 


We-ya ! 


Ca 


We-ya 



The number of words, in this song, are few and simple, but they are 
made up from compounds which carry the whole of their original mean- 
ings, and are rather suggestive of the ideas floating in the mind, than 
actual expressions of those ideas. Literally he sings : 

Spirit of the North West — ^you are but my fellow man. 
* A personification of the North West. 

85 



86 



SHINGEBISS. 



By being broken into syllables, to correspond with a simple chant, and 
by the power of intonation and repetition, with a chorus, these words are 
expanded into melodious utterance, if we may be allowed the term, and 
may be thus rendered : 

Windy god, I know your plan, 
You are but my fellow man, 
Blow you may your coldest breeze, 
Shingebiss you cannot freeze. 
Sweep the strongest wind you can, 
Shingebiss is still your man. 
Heigh ! for Hfe — and ho ! for bliss, 
Who so free as Shingebiss 1 

The hunter knew that Kabebonicca was at his door, for he felt his cold 
and strong breath ; but he kept on singing his songs, and affected utter 
indifference. At length Kabebonicca entered, and took his seat on the 
opposite side of the lodge. But Shingebiss did not regard, or notice him. 
He got up, as if nobody were present, and taking his poker, pushed the 
log, which made his fire burn brighter, repeating as he sat down again : 

You are but my fellow man. 

Very soon the tears began to flow doAvn Kabebonicca's cheeks, which 
increased so fast, that, presently, he said to himself, " I cannot stand this — 
I must go out.'' He did so, and left Shingebiss to his songs ; but resolved 
to freeze up all the flag orifices, and make the ice thick, so that he could not 
get any more fish. Still Shingebiss, by dint of great diligence, found 
means to pull up new roots, and dive under for fish. At last Kabebon- 
icca was compelled to give up the contest. " He must be aided by some 
Monedo," said he, " I can neither freeze him, nor starve him, he is a very 
singular being — I will let him alone." 



The mtroduction of the Saxon race into North America, has had three 
determined opponents, the life of each of whom forms a distinct era. They 
were Powhatan, Metakom, and Pontiac. Each pursued the same method 
to accomplish his end, and each was the indominitable foe of the race.— 
Sassacus ought, perhaps, to be added to the number. Brant, was but a 
partisan, and fought for one branch, against another. Tecumseh, was 
also, rather the foe of the American type of the race, than the whole race. 
The same can be said of lesser men, such as Little Turtle, Buckanj aheela, 
and Black Hawk. Uncas was also a partisan, not a hater of the white 
race, and like Waub Ojeeg in the north, fought, that one tribe might 
prevail over another. If the Saxon race profited by this, he could not 
help it./ Tuscaloosa fought for his tribe's supremacy ; Osceola for 
revenge. 



EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. 



P I S K A R E T . 

There lived a noted chief on the north banks of the St. Lawrence in 
i,he latter part of the 16th century, who was called by the Iroquois, Piskaret, 
but the true pronunciation of whose name, by his own people, was Bisco- 
nace, or the Little Blaze. Names are often arbitrarily bestowed by the 
Indians, from some trivial circumstance in domestic life, or hunting, as 
mere nick names, which take the place of the real names : for it is a prac- 
tice among this people to conceal their real names, from a subtle, supersti- 
tious notion, that, if so known, they will be under the power of priestly 
incantation, or some other evil influence. 

What the real name of this man was, if it differed from the above, is not 
known, as this was his only appellation. He was an Adirondak: that 
is to say, one of the race of people who were called Adirondaks ^y the 
Iroquois, but Algonquins by the French. And as the Algonquins and 
Iroquois, had lately became deadly enemies and were so then, the distinction 
to which Bisconace rose, was in the conducting of the war which his peo- 
ple waged against the Iroquois, or Five Nations. 

It seems, from the accounts of both English and French authors, that 
the Algonquins, at the period of the first settlement of the St. Lawrence, 
were by far the most advanced in arts and knowledge, and most distin- 
guished for skill in war and hunting, of all the nations in North America. 
This at least is certain, that no chief, far or near, enjoyed as high a repu- 
tation for daring valor and skill as Bisconace. He is spoken of in this 
light by all who name him ; he was so fierce, subtle and indomitable that 
he became the terror of his enemies, who were startled at the very 
mention of his name. Bisconace lived on the north banks of the St. Law- 
rence, below Montreal, and carried on his wars against the Indians inhabit- 
ing the northern parts of the present state of New York, often proceeding 
by the course of the River Sorel. 

The period of the Adirondak supremacy, embraced the close of the 
l5th century and the beginning of the 16th, and at this time the people be- 
gan to derive great power and boldness, from the possession of fire arms, 
with which the French supplied them, before their southern and western 
neighbours came to participate in this great improvement, this striking era 
of the Red man, in the art of war. Golden is thought to be a little out, 
in the great estimate he furnishes of the power, influence, and advances 
of this great family of the Red Race. The French naturally pufled them 
up a good deal ; but we may admit that they were most expert warriors, 
and hunters, and manufactured arms and canoes, with great skill. They 

87 



88 



EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. 



were the prominent enemies of the Five Nations ; and like all enemies at 
a distance had a formidable name. The word Adirondak is one of Iro- 
quois origin; but the French, who always gave their own names to the 
TribeSj^nd had a policy in so doing, called them Algonquins — a term 
whose origin is involved in some obscurity. For a time, they prevailed 
against their enemies south of the St. Lawrence, but the latter were soon 
furnished with arms by the Dutch, who entered the Hudson in 1609, and 
their allies, the Iracoson, or Iroquois, soon assumed that rank in war 
which, if they had before lacked, raised them to so high a point of pre- 
eminence. It was in that early period of the history of these nations that 
Bisconace exerted his power. 

Where a people have neither history nor biography, there is but little 
hope that tradition will long preserve the memory of events. Some of 
the acts of this chief are known through the earlier colonial writers. So 
great was the confidence inspired in the breast of this chief, by the use of 
fire arms, that he pushed into the Iroquois country like a mad man, and 
performed some feats against a people armed with bows only, which are 
astonishing. 

With only four chiefs to aid him, he left Trois Rivieres, on one occa- 
sion, in a single canoe, with fifteen loaded muskets, thus giving three 
pieces, to each man. Each piece was charged with two balls, joined by a 
small chain ten inches long. Soon after entering the Sorel river, he en- 
countered five bark canoes of Iroquois, each having ten men. To cloak 
his ruse he pretended to give himself up for lost, in view of such a dis- 
parity of numbers ; and he and his companions began to sing their death 
song. They had no sooner got near their enemies, hovi^ever, than they 
began to pour in their chain-shot, riddling the frail canoes of the enemy, 
who tumbled into the water, and sank under the active blows of their 
adversaries. Some he saved to grace his triumphant return, and these 
were tortured at the stake. 

On another accasion he undertook an enterprize alone. Being well 
acquainted with the Iroquois country, he set out, about the time the snow 
began to melt, taking the precaution to put the hinder part of his snow- 
shoes forward to mislead the enemy, in case his track should be discovered. 
As a further precaution, he avoided the plain forest paths, keeping along 
the ridges and high stony grounds, v^^here the snow was melting, that his 
track might be often lost. When he came near to one of the Villages of 
the Five Nations, he hid himself till night. He then crept forth, and en- 
tered a lodge, where he found every soul asleep. Having killed them all, 
he took their scalps, and went back to his lurking place. The next day 
the people of the village searched in vain for the perpetrator. At night 
he again sallied forth, and repeated the act, on another lodge, with equal 
secrecy and success. Again the villagers searched, but could find no 
traces of his footsteps. They determined, however, to set a watch. Pis- 



EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. 




karet, anticipating this, gathered up his scalps, and stole forth ^lyly, out 
found the inhabitants of every lodge on the alert, save one, where tlie sen- 
tinel had fallen asleep. This man he despatched and scalped, but ajarmed 
the rest, who rose in the pursuit. He was, however, under n%».great 
fears of being overtaken. One of the causes of his great confidence in 
himself was found in the fact that he was the swiftest runner krjtti^n. 
He eluded them often, sometimes, hov/ever, lingering to draw them on, 
and tire them out. When he had played this trick, he hid himself His 
pursuers, finding they had let him escape, encamped, thinking themselves 
in safety, bat they had no sooner fallen asleep, than he stole forth from 
his lurking place, and despatched every one of them. He added their 
scalps to his bundle of trophies, and then returned. 

Recitals of this kind flew from village to village, and gave him the 
greatest reputation for courage, adroitness and fleetness. 

The Five Nations were, however, early noted for their skill in stratagem, 
and owed their early rise to it. They were at this era engaged in their 
long, fierce and finally triumphant war against the Algonquins and Wy- 
andots, or to adopt the ancient terms, the Adirondaks and Gluatoghies. 
These latter they defeated in a great battle, fought within two miles of 
Gluebec. In this battle the French, who were in reality weak in number, 
were neutral. Their neutrality, on this occasion, happened in this way. 
They had urged the reception of priests upon the Five Nations, through 
whose influence, they hoped to prevail over that people, and to wrest 
western New York from the j)ower of the Dutch and English. As soon 
as a number of these missionaries of the sword and cross had insinuated 
themselves among the Five Nations, the latter seized them, as hostages ; 
and, under a threat of their execution, kept the French quiet in this deci- 
sive battle. This scheme had succeeded so well, that it taught the Five 
Nations the value of negociation ; and they determined, the next year, to 
try another. Pretending that they were now well satisfied with their tri- 
umph on the St. Lawrence, they sent word that they meant to make a 
formidable visit to Yonnendio, this being the oflicial name they bestowed 
on the governor of Canada. Such visits they always made with great 
pomp and show; and on this occasion, they came with 1000 or 1200 men. 
On the way to Gluebec, near the river Nicolet, their scouts met Piskaret, 
whom they cajoled, and kept in utter ignorance of the large force behind 
until they had drawn out of him an important piece of information, and 
then put him to death. They cut off* his head, and carried it to the Iro- 
quois army. To have killed him, was regarded as an assurance of ulti- 
mate victory. These scouts also carried to the army the information, 
which they had obtained, that the Adirondaks were divided into two 
bodies, one of which hunted on the river Nicolet, and the other at a place 
called Wabmeke, on the north side of the St. Lawrence. They immedi- 



90 



EARLY INDIAN BIOGRAPHY. 



ately divided their forces, fell upon each body at unawares and cut them 
both to pieces. 

This is the great triumph to which Charlevoix, in his history of New 
France, alludes. It was the turning point in the war against the confederated 
Wyandots, and Algonquias, and, in effect, drove both nations, in the end, 
effectually out of the St. Lawrence valley. The former fled to Lake Hu- 
ron, to which they imparted their name. Some of the Adirondaks took 
shelter near Gluebec, under the care of the Jesuits ; the larger number 
went up the Utawas, to the region of Lake Nipising ; the Atawaircs fled 
to a large chain of islands in Lake Huron, called the Menaloulins ; other 
bands scattered in other directions. Each one had some local name; and 
ail, it is probable, were well enough pleased to hide their defeat by the 
Five Nations, under local and geographical designations. But they had 
no peace in their refuge. The spirit of revenge burned in the breast of the 
Iroquois, particularly against their kindred tribe, the Wyandots, whom 
they pursued into Lake Huron, drove them from their refuge at Michili- 
mackinac, and pushed them even to Lake Superior, where for many years, 
this ancient tribe continued to dwell. 



The pernicious examples of white men, who have conducted the Indian 
trade, their immoral habits, injustice, and disregard of truth, and open 
licentiousness, have created the deepest prejudice in the minds of the Red 
men against the whole European race. 

The Indian only thinks when he is forced to think, by circumstances. 
Fear, hunger and self-preservation, are the three prominent causes of his 
thoughts. Affection and reverence for the dead, come next. 

Abstract thought is the characteristic of civilization. If teachers could 
induce the Indians to think on subjects not before known to them, or but 
imperfectly known, they would adopt one of the most efficacious means 
of civilizing them. 

Christianity is ultraism to an Indian It is so opposed to his natural 
desires, that he, at first, hates it, and decries it. Opposite states of feeling, 
however, affect him, precisely as they do white men. What he at first 
hates, he may as suddenly love and embrace. 

Christianity is not propagated by ratiocination, it is the result of feelings 
and affections on the will and understanding. Hence an Indian can be- 
come a christian. 



THE SAUSTAWRAYTSEES, 



OR, 

THE ORIGIN OF THE WYANDOT AND SENECA TRIBES. 

A WYANDOT TRADITION. 

Towards the middle of the seventeenth century, a body of Indians, com- 
posed of the Wyandots (or as they weie then called the Saus-tavv-ray- 
tsee) and Seneca tribes inhabited the borders of Lake Ontario. The pre- 
sent Wyandots and Senecas are the remains of this community, and of 
the cause of their separation and of the relentless hostilities by which it 
was succeeded, the following details are given in the traditionary history 
of the Wyandots. 

A Wyandot girl, whose name for the sake of distinction shall be Oon- 
yay-stee, and in whom appeared united a rare combination of moral attrac- 
tions, and of extraordinary personal beauty, had for her suitors, nearly 
all the young men of her tribe. As insensible however, as beautiful, the 
attentions of her lovers were productive of no favorable effect, for though 
none were rejected, yet neither was any one distinguished by her partiality. 
This unaccountable apathy becamd*, in time, a subject not only of general, 
but of common interest to the young Wyandots. A council composed of 
those interested in the issue of these many and importunate applications 
for her favor, was held for the purpose of devising some method, by which 
her intentions in relation to them might be ascertained. ^ At this, when 
these amourists had severally conceded, each, that he could boast of no in- 
dication of a preference shown by Oon-yay-stee to himself, upon which to 
found a reasonable hope of ultimately succeeding, it was finally deter- 
mined, that their claims should be withdrawn in favor of the War Chief 
of their lodge. This was adopted, not so much for the purpose of advan 
cing the interests of another to the prejudice of their own, as to avoid the 
humiliating alternative of yielding the object of so much competition tc 
some more fortunate rival not connected with their band. 

It may be here fiecessary to remark that nearly all the suitors belonged 
to one lodge, and that each of these was a large oblong building, capablf. 
of containing 20 or 30 famihes, the domestic arrangements of which were 
regulated by a war chief, acknowledged as the head of that particular sub- 
ordinate band. 

Many objections to the task imposed on him by this proposition were 

91 



92 



HISTORICAL TRADITIONS. 



interposed by the chief, the principal of which were, the great disparity of 
age and the utter futility of any further attempt, upon the affections of one 
so obdurate of heart. The first was obviated by some well applied com- 
mendations of his person, and the second yielded to the suggestion that 
women were often capricious, were not always influenced by considera- 
tions the most natural, or resolvable to reasons the most obvious. 

The chief then painted and arrayed himself as for battle, bestowing 
some little additional adornment upon his person, to aid him in this species 
of warfare, with which he was not altogether so familiar as that in which 
he had acquired his reputation ; his practice having been confined rather to 
the use of stone-headed arrows than love darts, and his dexterity in the 
management of hearts displayed rather in making bloody incisions, than 
tender impressions. Before he left the lodge, his retainers pledged them- 
selves, that if the prosecution of this adventure should impose upon their 
chief the necessity of performing any feat, to render him better worthy the 
acceptance of Oon-yay-stee, they would aid him in its accomplishment, 
and sustain him against its consequences to the last extremity. It was re- 
served for so adventurous a spirit that it should be as successful in love, as 
it had hitherto been resistless in war. 

After a courtship of a few days, he proposed himself and was condition- 
ally accepted, but what the nature of this condition was, further than that 
it was indispensable, Oon-yay-stee refused to tell him, until he should 
have given her the strongest assurances that it should be complied with. 
After some hesitation and a consultation with the lovers who urged him 
to give the promise, he declared himself ready to accept the terms of the 
compact. Under her direction he then pledged the word of a warrior, 
that neither peril to person, nor sacrifice of affection should ever prevail 
with him to desist, imprecating the vengeance of Hau-men-dee-zhoo^ and 
the persecution of Dairh-shoo-oo-roo-no upon his head if he failed to 
prosecute to the uttermost, the enterprise, if its accomplishment were 
only possible. 

She told him to bring her the scalp of a Seneca chief whom she desig- 
nated, who for some reason she chose not to reveal, was the object of her 
hatred. 

The Wyandot saw too late, that he was committed. He besought her 
to reflect, that this man was his bosom friend, they had eaten and drank 
and grown up together — and how heavy it would make his heart to think 
that his friend had perished by his hand. He remonstrated with her on 
the cruelty of such a requisition, on the infamy of such an outrage of con- 
fidence and the execration which would forever pursue the author of an 
action so accursed. But his expostulations were made to deaf ears. She 
told him either to redeem his pledge, or consent to be proclaimed for a 
lying dog, whose promises were unworthy ever to be heard, and then left 
him. 



HISTORICAL TRADITIONS. 



93 



An hour had hardly elapsed, before the infuriated Wyandot blackened 
his face, entered the Seneca Village, tomahawked and scalped his friend^ 
and as he rushed out of the lodge shouted the scalp-whoop. In the dark- 
ness of the night his person could not be distinguished, and he was chal- 
lenged by a Seneca to whom he gave his name, purpose, and a defiance 
and then continued his fiight. But before it had terminated, the long 
mournful scalp-whoop of the Seneca s was resounding through the Wy- 
andot Village ; and the chief had hardly joined in the furious conflict that 
ensued between the avengers of his murdered victim and his own retain- 
ers, before he paid with his life the forfeit of his treachery. 

After a deadly and sustained combat for three days and nights, with 
alternate success, the Wyandots were compelled to retire, deserting their 
village and abandoning their families to such mercy as might be granted 
by an infuriated enemy. Those who were left, sunk under the tomahawk 
and scalping knife — the village was devastated — and the miserable author 
of the bloody tragedy herself perished amid this scene of indiscriminate 
slaughter and desolation. 

This war is said to have continued for a period of more than 30 years, 
in which time, the Wyandots had been forced backwards as far as Lakes 
Huron and Michigan, Here they made an obstinate stand, from which all 
the efforts of their relentless enemies to dislodge them were ineffectual. 
Their inveterate hatred of each other was fostered by the war parties of 
the respective tribes, whose vindictive feelings led them to hunt and de- 
stroy each other, like so many beasts of the forest. These resulted gene- 
rally in favor of the Wyandots, who, inspirited by these partial successes, 
prepared for more active operations. Three encounters took place, on the 
same day, two being had on Lake Michigan and one on Lake Erie, and 
which from their savage and exterminating character, closed this long and 
merciless contest. It is somewhat remarkable, as no other tradition makes 
mention of an Indian battle upon water, that one of these, said to have 
occurred on Lake Erie, between Long Point and Fort Talbot, was fought 
in canoes. Of this the following detail is given. 

A large body of Wyandots accompanied by two Ottawas left Lake Hu- 
ron in birch canoes, on a war excursion into the country of the Senecas, 
who had settled at this time, near the head of the Niagara river. They 
put ashore at Long Point to cook, when one of the Ottawas and a Wyan- 
dot were sent out as spies to reconnoitre. They had proceeded but a short 
distance from the camp, when they met two Senecas, who had been de- 
spatched by their party for the like purposes, and from whom they instantly 
fled. The Ottawa finding his pursuers gaining upon him, hid himself in 
the branches of a spruce tree, where he remained till the Seneca had 
passed. The Wyandot, fleeter of foot, succeeded in reaching his camp 
and gave the alarm, when the whole body embarked and pushed out intc 
the lake. In another moment a party of Senecas was discovered, turniu 



94 



EARLY SKETCHES OP INDIAN WOMEN. 



the nearest point of land in wooden canoes. Immediately the war-whoops 
were sounded and the hostile bands began to chant their respective songs. 
As they slowly approached each other, the Wyandots struck a fire, and 
prepared their gum and bark to repair any damage which might occur to 
the canoes. The battle was fought with bows and arrows, and after a 
furious and obstinate contest of some hours, in which the carnage was 
dreadful, and the canoes were beginning to fill with blood, water and man- 
gled bodies, the Senecas began to give way. The encouraged Wyandots 
fought with redoubled ardor, driving the Senecas to the shore, where the 
conflict was renewed with unabated fury. The Wyandots were victorious, 
and few of the surviving Senecas escaped to tell the story of their defeat. 
One of the prisoners, a boy, was spared and adopted by the nation. Two 
Wyandots are now living who profess to have seen him, when very far 
advanced in years. 

The two other attacks to which allusion has been made, as occurring- 
on the borders of Lake Michigan, were not more fortunate in their issue. 
The Senecas were repulsed with great slaughter. 

Thus, say the Wyandots, originated this long, bloody and disastrous 
war, and thus it terminated after proving nearly the ruin of our nation. 

HO-TSHUNG-RAH. 

JJjyper Sandusky^ March \st^ 1827. 



EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. 

The oldest books we possess written by the first observers of our In- 
dians abound in interest. Among these is a small work by William Wood, 
who visited Plymouth and Massachusetts soon after their settlement, and 
published his New England] s Prospect^^ in London, in 1634. 

The following extract from this book, (now very scarce,) we make 
here, partly for the purpose which the author declares he had in view in 
writing it, viz. : to excite the special interest of our female readers, though 
the good humour and wit, as well as the benevolence of the writer, will 
doubtless commend it to persons of both sexes. That we may not run 
the risk of losing any of the effect of the quaint, old-fashioned style of 
the original, we have been careful to preserve the author's orthography 
and punctuation, together with the long sentences, for which, as well as 
many of his contemporaries, he was remarkable. We have omitted short 
and unimportant passages in a few places, marked with asterisks. 



WASBASHAS; 



OR, 

THE. TEBE THAT GKEW OUT OE A SHELL. 

AN OSAGE LEGEND. 

There was a snail living on the banks of the river Missouri, where he 
found plenty of food, and wanted nothing. But at length the waters be- 
gan to rise and overflow its banks, and although the little animal clung 
to a log, the flood carried them both away : they floated along for many 
days. When the water fell, the poor snail was left in the mud and slime, 
on shore. The heat of the sun came out so strong, that he was soon fixed 
in the slime and could not stir. He could no longer get any nourish- 
ment. He became oppressed with heat and drought. He resigned him- 
self to his fate and prepared to die. But al] at once, he felt a renewed 
vigour. His shell burst open, and he began to rise. His head gradually 
rose above the ground, he felt his lower extremities assuming the charac- 
ter of feet and legs. Arms extended from his sides. He felt their ex- 
tremities divide into fingers. In fine he rose, under the influence of one 
day's sun, into a tall and noble man. For a while he remained in a dull 
and stupid state. He had but little activity, and no clear thoughts. 
These all came by degrees, and when his recollections returned, he re- 
solved to travel back to his native land. 

But he was naked and ignorant. The first want he felt was hunger. 
He saw beasts and birds, as he walked along, but he knew not how to 
kill them. He wished himself again a snail, for he knew how, in that 
form, to get his food. At length he became so weak, by walking and 
fasting, that he laid himself down, on a grassy bank, to die. He had not 
laid long, when he heard a voice calling him by name. " Was-bas-has," 
exclaimed the voice. He looked up, and beheld the Great Spirit sitting 
on a white horse. His eyes glistened like stars. The hair of his head 
shone like the sun. He could not bear to look upon him. He trembled 
from head to foot. Again the voice spoke to him in a mild tone* 
" Was-bas-has ! Why do you look terrified ?" " I tremble," he replied, 
because 1 stand before Him who raised me from the ground. I am faint 

95 



96 



WASBASHAS. 



and hungry, — I have eaten nothing since the floods left me upon the shore 

—a little shell." 

The Great Spirit here lifted up his hands and displaying a bow and 
arrows, told him to look at him. At a distance sat a bird on a tree. He 
put an arrow to the string, and pulling it with force, brought down the 
beautiful object. At this moment a deer came in sight. He placed ano- 
ther arrow to the string, and pierced it through and through. " These" 
said he, " are your food, and these are your arms," handing him the bow 
and arrows. He then instructed him how to remove the skin of the deer, 
and prepare it for a garment. " You are naked," said he, " and must be 
clothed ; it is now warm, but the skies will change, and bring rains, and 
snow, and cold winds." Having said this, he also imparted the gift of fire, 
and instructed him how to roast the flesh. He then placed a collar of 
wampum around his neck. " This," said he, " is your authority over all 
beasts." Having done this, both horse and rider rose up, and vanished 
from his sight. 

Was-bas-has refreshed himself, and now pursued his way to his native 
land. He had seated himself on the banks of the river, and was medita- 
ting on what had passed, when a large beaver rose up from the channel 
and addressed him. " Who art thou ;" said the beaver, " that comest here 
to disturb my ancient reign ?" " I am a mo-w," he replied ; " I was once a shell, 
a creeping shell ; but who art thou ?" " I am king of the nation of beavers," 
he answered : " I lead my people up and down this stream ; we are a busy 
people, and the river is my dominion." "I must divide it with you," re- 
torted Was-bas-has. " The Great Spirit has placed me at the head of 
beasts and birds, fishes and fowl ; and has provided me with the power 
of maintaining my rights." Here he held up the bow and arrows, and 
displayed the collar of shells around his neck. " Come, come," said the 
Beaver, modifying his tone, " I perceive we are brothers. — Walk with me 
to my lodge, and refresh yourself after your journey," and so saying he 
led the way. The Snail-Man willingly obeyed his invitation, and had 
no reason to repent of his confidence. They soon entered a fine large vil- 
lage, and his host led him to the chiefs lodge. It was a well-built room, 
of a cone-shape, and the floor nicely covered with mats. As soon as 
they were seated, the Beaver directed his wife and daughter to prepare 
food for their guest. While this was getting ready, the Beaver chief 
thought he would improve his opportunity by making a fast friend of so 
superior a being ; whom he saw, at the same time, to be but a novice. 
He informed him of the method they had of cutting down trees, with their 
teeth, and of felling them across streams, so as to dam up the water, and de- 
scribed the method of finishing their dams with leaves and clay. He also 
instructed him in the way of erecting lodges, and with other wise and 
seasonable conversation beguiled the time. His wife and daughter now 
entered, bringmg in vessels of fresh peeled poplar, and willow, and sassa- 

ij 



ORIGIN OF THE DORMOUSE. 



97 



fras, and alder bark, which is the most choice food known to them. Of 
this, Was-bas-has made a merit of tasting, while his entertainer devoured 
it with pleasure. He was pleased with the modest looks and deportment of 
the chiefs daughter, and her cleanly and neat attire, and her assiduous 
attention to the commands of her father. This was ripened into esteem 
by the visit he made her. A mutual attachment ensued. A union was 
proposed to the father, who was rejoiced to find so advantageous a match 
for his daughter. A great feast was prepared, to which all the beavers, 
and other animals on good terms with them, were invited. The Snail- 
Man and the Beaver-Maid were thus united, and this union is the origin 
of the Osages. So it is said by the old people. 



THE BOY WHO SET A SNARE FOE THE SUN; 

OR 

THE ORIGIN OF THE KUG-E-BEENG-WA-KWA,* OR DORMOUSE. 

FROM THE ODJIBWA ALGONQXJIN. 

At the time when the animals reigned in the earth, they had killed all 
but a girl, and her little brother, and these two were living in fear and se- 
clusion. The boy was a perfect pigmy, and never grew beyond the stature 
of a small infant ; but the girl increased with her years, so that the labor 
of providing food and lodging devolved wholly on her. She went out 
daily to get wood for their lodge-fire, and took her little brother along that 
no accident might happen to him ; for he was too littlo to leave alone. A 
big bird might have flown away with him. She made him a bow and 
arrows and said to him one day, " I will leave you behind where I have 
been chopping — you must hide yourself, and you will soon see the Git- 
shee-gitshee-gaun, ai see-ug or snow birds, come and pick the worms out of 
the wood, where 1 have been chopping," (for it was in the winter.) " Shoot 
one of them and bring it home." He obeyed her, and tried his best to kill 
one, but came home unsuccessful. She told him he must not despair, but 
try again the next day. She accordingly left him at the place she got 
wood, and returned. Towards nightfall, she heard his little footsteps on 
the snow, and he came in exultingly, and threw down one of the birds, 
which he had killed. " My sister," said he, " I wish you to skin it and 
stretch the skin, and when I have killed more, I will have a coat made 
out of them." " But what shall we do with the body?" said she ; for as yet 
men had not begun to eat animal food, but lived on vegetables alone. 
" Cut it in two," he answered, " and season our pottage with one half of it 

* Blind Woman. 
7 



98 



ORIGIN OF THE DORMOUSE. 



at a time." She did so. The boy, who was of a very small stature, con- 
tinued his efforts, and succeeded in killing ten birds, out of the skins of 
which his sister made him a little coat. 

" Sister," said he one day, "are we all alone in the world ? Is there nobody 
else living?" She told him that those they feared and who had destroyed 
their relatives lived in a certain quarter, and that he must by no means go 
in that direction. This only served to inflame his curiosity and raise his 
ambition, and he soon after took his bow and arrows and went in that 
direction. After walking a long time and meeting nothing, he became 
tired, and lay down on a knoll, where the sun had melted the snow. He 
fell fast asleep ; and while sleeping, the sun beat so hot upon him, that it 
singed and drew up his bird-skin coat, so that when he awoke and 
stretched himself, he felt bound m it, as it were. He looked down and 
saw the damage done to his coat. He flew into a passion and upbraided 
the sun, and vowed vengeance against it. Do not think you are too 
high," said he, I shall revenge myself" 

On coming home he related his disaster to his sister, and lamented bit- 
terly the spoiling of his coat. He would not eat. He lay down as one 
that fasts, and did not stir, or move his position for ten days, though she 
tried all she could to arouse him. At the end of ten days, he turned over, 
and then lay ten days on the other side. When he got up, he told his 
sister to make him a snare, for he meant to catch the sun. She said she 
had nothing ; but finally recollected a little piece of dried deer's sinew, that 
her father had left, which she soon made into a string suitable for a noose. 
But the moment she showed it to him, he told her it would not do, and 
bid her get something else. She said she had nothing — nothing at all. 
At last she thought of her hair, and pulling some of it out of her head, 
made a string. But he instantly said it would not answer, and bid her, 
pettishly, and with authority, make him a noose. She told him there 
was nothing to make it of, and went out of the iodge= She said to her- 
self, when she had got vvdthout the lodge, and \Yhi\e she was all alone, 
"neow obe^-N-y indapin." This she did, and twisting them into a tiny 
cord she handed it to her brother. The mometit he saw this curious 
braid he was delighted. " This will do," he said, and immediately put it 
to his mouth and began pulling it through his lips : and as fast as he drew 
it changed it into a red metal cord, which he wound around his bod}- and 
shoulders, till he had a large quantity. He then prepared himself, and 
set out a little after midnight, that he might catch the sun before it rose. 
He fixed his snare on a spot just where the sun would strike the land, as 
it rose above the earth's disc ; and sure enough, he caught the sun, so that 
it was held fast in the cord, and did not rise. 

The animals who ruled the earth were immedialel}'' put into a great 
commotion. They had no light. They called a council to debate upon 
the matter, and to appoint some one to go and cut the cord — for this 



AMPATA SAPA. 



99 



was a very hazardous enterprize, as the rays of the sun would burr who- 
ever came so near to them. At last the dormouse undertook it — for at 
this time the dormouse was the largest animal in the world. When it 
stood up it looked like a mountain. When it got to the place where the 
sun was snared, its back began to smoke and burn, with the intensity of 
the heat, and the top of its carcass was reduced to enormous heaps of 
ashes. It succeeded, however, in cutting the cord with its teeth, and free- 
ing the sun, but it was reduced to a very small size, and has remained 
so ever since. Men call it the Kug-e-been-gwa-kwa. 



AMPATA SAPA; 

OR, 

THE FIRST-WIFE. 

A TRADITION OF THE DACOTAHS. 

Amp ATA Sapa was the wife of a brave young hunter and warrior, by 
whom she had two children. They lived together in great happiness, 
which was only varied by the changes of a forest life. Sometimes they 
lived on the prairies ; sometimes they built their wigwam in the forest, 
near the banks of a stream, and they paddled their canoe up and down the 
rivers. In these trips they got fish, when they were tired of wild meats. 
In the summer season they kept on the open grounds ; in the winter, they 
fixed their camp in a sheltered position, in the woods. The very change 
of their camp was a source of pleasure, for they were always on the look- 
out for something new. They had plenty, and they wanted nothing. 

In this manner the first years of their marriage passed away. But it so 
happened, that as years went by, the reputation of her husband in the tribe 
increased, and he soon came to be regarded as a Weetshahstshy Atapee, or 
chief This opened a new field for his ambition and pride. The fame 
of a chief, it is well known, is often increased by the number of his wives. 
His lodge was now thronged with visitors. Some came to consult him ; 
some to gain his favour. All this gave Ampata Sapa no uneasiness, for 
the Red People like to have visitors, and to show hospitality^ The first thing 
that caused a jar in her mind, was the rumour that her husband was about 
to take a new wife. This was like a poison in her veins ; for she had a big 
heart. She was much attached to her husband, and she could not bear 
the idea of sharing his afiections with another. But she found that the 
idea had already got strong hold of her husband's mind, and her remon- 
strances did little good. He aefended himself on the ground, that it would 
give him greater influence in the tribe if he took the daughter of a noted 



100 



AMPATA SAPA. 



chief. But before he had time to bring her to hjs lodge, Ampata Sapa 
had fled from it, taking her two children, and returned to her father's 
lodge. Her father lived at some distance, and here she remained a short 
time in quiet. The whole band soon moved up the Mississippi, to their 
hunting ground. She was glad to go with them, and would, indeed, have 
been glad to go any where, to get farther from the lodge of her faithless 
husband. 

Here the winter wore away. When the Spring opened, they came 
back again to the banks of the river, and mended and fitted up the canoes^ 
which they had left in the fall. In these they put their furs, and de- 
scended to the Falls of St. Anthony. Ampata Sapa lingered behind a 
short time the morning of their embarkation, as they began to draw near 
the rapids which precede the great plunge. She then put her canoe in 
the water, and embarked with her children. As she approached the falls, 
the increasing velocity of the current rendered the paddles of but little 
use. She rested with her's suspended in her hands, while she arose, and 
uttered her lament : 

"It was him only that I loved, with the love of my heart. It was for 
him that I prepared, with joy, the fresh killed meat, and swept with 
boughs my lodge-fire. It was for him I dressed the skin of the noble deer,, 
and worked, with my hands, the Moccasins that graced his feet. 

I waited while the sun ran his daily course, for his return from the 
chase, and I rejoiced in my heart when I heard his manly footsteps ap- 
proach the lodge. He threw down his burden at the door — it was a 
haunch of the deer ; — I flew to prepare the meat for his use. 

My heart was bound up in him, and he was all the world to me. But 
he has left me for another, and life is now a burden which I cannot Lear. 
L'ven my children add to my griefs — they look so much like him. [low 
can I support life, when all its moments are bitter I I have lifted up my 
voice to the Master of life. I have asked him to take back that life, which 
he gave, and which I no longer wish. I am on the current that hastens 
to fulfil my prayer. I see the white foam of the water. It is my shroud. 
I hear the deep murmur from below. It is my funeral song. Farewell. 

It was too late to arrest her course. She had approached too near the 
abj^ss, before her purpose was discovered by her friends. They beheld 
her enter the foam — they saw the canoe for an instant, on the verge, and 
then disappear for ever. Such was the end of Ampata Sapa ; and they say 
her canoe can sometimes be seen, by moonlight, plunging over the falls. 



Internal- dissention has don§ more to destroy the Indian power in 
America, than the white man's sword. Could the tribes, learn the wis- 
dom of confederation, they might yet be saved. This is a problem now 
undergoing an interesting process of solution. 



MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA; 



OR, 

THE TOAD-WOMAN. 

AN ODJIBWA TALE. 

Great good luck once happened to a young woman who was living all 
alone in the wooas, with nobody near her but her little dog, for, to her sur- 
j^rrise, she found fresh meat every morning at her door. She felt very 
anxious to know who it was tiiat supplied her, and watching one morning, 
very early, she saw a handsome young man deposit the meat. After his 
being seen by her, he became her husband, and she had a son by him. 
One day not long after this, tbe man did not return at evening, as usual, 
from hunting. She waited till ]ate at night, but all in vain. Next day 
she swung her baby to sleep in its tikenagun, or cradle, and then said to 
her dog : " Take care of your brother whilst I am gone, and when he 
cries, halloo for me." The cradle was inade of the finest wampum, and 
all its bandages and decorations were ot the same costly material. After 
a short time the woman heard the cry of her faithful dog, and running 
home as fast as she could, she found her child gone and the dog too. 
But on looking round, she saw pieces of the wampum of her child's cradle 
bit off by the dog, who strove to retain the child and prevent his being 
carried qff by an old woman called Mukakee Mindemoea, or the Toad- 
Woman. The mother followed at full speed, and occasionally came to 
lodges inhabited by old women, who told her at what time the thief had 
passed ; they also gave her shoes, that she might follow on. There were 
a number of these old women, who seemed as if they were all prophetesses. 
Each of them would say to her, that when she arrived in pursuit of her 
stolen child at the next lodge, she must set the toes of the moccasins they 
had loaned her pointing homewards, and they would return of themselves. 
She would get others from her entertainers farther on, who would also 
give her directions how to proceed to recover her son. She thus followed 
in the pursuit, from valley to valley, and stream to stream, for months and 
years ; when she came, at length, to the lodge of the last of the friendly old 
Nocoes, or grandmothers, as they were called, who gave her final instruc. 
tions how to proceed. She told her she was near the place where her son 
was, and directed her to build a lodge of shingoob, or cedar boughs, near 
the old Toad- Woman's lodge, and to make a little bark dish and squeeze 
her milk into it. " Then," she said, " your first child (meaning the dog) 
will come and find you out " She did accordingly, and in a short time 

101 



102 



MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA. 



she heard her son, now grown, going out to hunt, with his dog, calling ou 
to him, " Monedo Pewaubik (that is. Steel or Spirit Iron,) Twee ! 
Twee!" She then set ready the dish and filled it with her milk. The 
dog soon scented it and came into the lodge ; she placed it before him. 
" See my child," said she, addressing him, " the food you used to have 
from me, your mother." The dog went and told his young master that 
he had found his real mother ; and informed him that the old woman, whom 
he called his mother, was not his mother, that she had stolen him when an 
infant in his cradle, and that he had himself followed her in hopes of get- 
ting him back. The young man and his dog then went on their hunting 
excursion, and brought back a great quantity of meat of all kinds. He 
said to his pretended mother, as he laid it down, " Send some to the 
stranger that has arrived lately." The old hag answered, No ! why 
should I send to her — the Sheegowish."* He insisted ; and she at last 
consented to take something, throwing it in at the door, with the remark, 
" My son gives you, or feeds you this." But it was of such an offensive 
nature, that she threw it immediately out after her. 

After this the young man paid the stranger a visit, at her lodge of cedar 
boughs, and partook of her dish of milk. She then told him she was his 
real mother, and that he had been stolen away from her by the detestable 
Toad-Woman, who was a witch. He was not quite convinced. She 
said to him, " Feign yourself sick, when you go home, and when the 
Toad- Woman asks what ails you, sdij that you want to see your cradle ; 
for your cradle was of wampum, and ^^our faithful brother, the dog, bit a 
piece off to try and detain you, which I picked up, as I followed in your 
track. They were real wampum, white and blue, shining and beautiful." 
She then showed him the pieces. He went home and did as his real 
mother bid him. " Mother," said he, " why am I so different in my 
looks from the rest of your children?" " Oh," said she, "it was a very 
bright clear blue sky when you were born ; that is the reason." When 
the Toad- Woman saw he was ill, she asked what she could do for him. 
He said nothing would do him good, but the sight of his cradle. She ran 
immediately and got a cedar cradle ; but he said " That is not my cradle." 
She went and got one of her own children's cradles, (for she had four,) but 
he turned his head and said, " That is not mine." She then produced the 
real cradle, and he saw it was the same, in substance, with the pieces the 
other had shown him ; and he was convinced, for he could even see the 
marks of the dog's teeth upon it. 

He soon got well, and went out hunting, and killed a fat bear. He and 
his dog-brother then stripped a tall pine of all its branches, and stuck the 
carcass on the top, taking the usual sign of his having killed an animal — 
the tongue. He told the Toad- Woman where he had left it, saying, " It 
is very far, even to the end of the earth." She answered, " It is not so far 
* Skeegowiss, a widow, and mowighj something nasty. 



I 



MUKAKEE MINDEMOEA'. 103 

but I can get it," so off she set. As soon as she was gone, the young man 
and his dog killed the Toad- Woman's children, and staked them on each 
side of the door, with a piece of fat in their mouths, and then went to his 
real mother and hastened her departure with them. The Toad- Woman 
spent a long time in finding the bear, and had much ado in climbing the 
tree to get down the carcass. As she got near home, she saw the children 
looking out, apparently, with the fat in their mouths, and was angry at 
them, saying, " Why do you destroy the pomatum of your brother." But 
her fury was great indeed, when she saw they were killed and impaled. 
She ran after the fugitives as fast as she could, and was near overtaking 
them, when the young man said, " We are pressed hard, but let this stay 
her progress," throwing his fire steel behind him, which caused the Toad- 
Woman to slip and fall repeatedly. But still she pursued and gained on 
them, when he threw behind him his flint, which again retarded her, for 
it made her slip and stumble, so that her knees were bleeding ; but she 
continued to follow on, and was gaining ground, when the young man 
said, " Let the Oshau shaw go min un (snake berry) spring up to detain 
her," and immediately these berries spread like scarlet all over the path 
for a long distance, which she could not avoid stooping down to pick and 
eat. Still she went on, and was again advancing on them, when the 
young man at last, said to the dog, " Brother, chew her into mummy, for 
she plagues us." So the dog, turning round, seized her and tore her to 
pieces, and they escaped. 



Death is frightful, or welcome, according to the theories men have of it. 
To the Indian, it is a pleasing and welcome event. He believes a future 
state to be one of rewards, and restitutions, and not of punishments. 

The Indian idea of paradise is the idea of the orientals. It consists of 
sensualities, not spiritualities. He expects the scene to furnish him ease 
and plenty. Ease and plenty make the Indian's happiness here, and his 
heaven is but a bright transcript of his earth. 

Paganism and idolatry, require more mysteries for their support than 
Christianity. The Christian has but one God, existing in three hypostases. 
It would be below the truth to say that the Indian has one hundred thou- 
sand gods. 

The Hindoos worship their multiform gods of the earth, air and sea. 
The North American Indian only believes in them. He worships the 
Great Spirit. 

Wild thoughts are often bright thoughts, but like the wild leaps of a 
mountain torrent, they are evanescent and unequal. We are dazzled 
by a single figure in an Indian speech, but it is too often like a spark 
amid a shower of ashes. 



THE FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES FROM 



THE SOUTH. 

A MOHEGAN TRADITION. 

Metoxon States, that the Shawnees v^rere, in ancient times, while they 
lived in the south, defeated by a confederacy of surrounding tribes, and in 
danger of being totally cut off and annihilated, had it not been for the in- 
terference of the Mohegans and Delawares. An alliance between them 
and the Mohegans, happened in this way. Whilst the Mohegans lived 
at Schodack, on the Hudson river, a young warrior of that tribe visited 
the Shawnees, at their southern residence, and formed a close friendship 
with a young warrior of his own age. They became as brothers, and 
vowed for ever to treat each other as such. 

The Mohegan warrior had returned, and been some years living with 
his nation, on the banks of the Chatimac, or Hudson, when a general war 
broke out against the Shawnees. The restless and warlike disposition of 
this tribe, kept them constantly embroiled with their neighbours. They 
were unfaithful to their treaties, and this was the cause of perpetual troubles 
and wars. At length the nations of the south resolved, by a general ef- 
fort, to rid themselves of so troublesome a people, and began a war, in 
which the Shawnees were defeated, battle after battle, with great loss. In 
this emergency, the Mohegan thought of his Shawnee brother, and re- 
solved to rescue him. He raised a war-party and being joined by the Le- 
napees, since called Delawares, they marched to their relief, and brought 
off the remnant of the tribe to the country of the Lenapees. Here they 
were put under the charge of the latter, as their grandfather. 

They were now, in the Indian phrase, put between their grandfather's 
knees, and treated as little children. Their hands were clasped and tied 
together — that is to say, they were taken under their protection, and 
for'.ned a close alliance. But still, sometimes the child would creep out 

104 



FLIGHT OP THE SHAWNEES. 



105 



under the old man's legs, and get into trouble — implying that the Shaw- 
nees could never forget their warlike propensities. 

The events of the subsequent history of this tribe, after the settlement 
of America are well known. With the Lenapees, or Dela wares, they mi- 
grated westward. 

The above tradition was received from the respectable and venerable 
chief, above named, in 1827, during the negotiation of the treaty of Buttes 
des Morts, on Fox river. At this treaty his people, bearing the modern 
name of Stockbridges, were present, having, within a few years, migrated 
from their former position in Oneida county. New York, to the waters of 
Fox river, in Wisconsin. 

Metoxon was a man of veracity, and of reflective and temperate habits, 
united to urbanity of manners, and estimable qualities of head and heart, 
as I had occasion to know from several years' acquaintance with him, be- 
fore he, and his people v/ent from Vernon to the west, as well as after he 
migrated thither. 

The tradition, perhaps with the natural partiality of a tribesman, lays 
too much stress upon a noble and gener(3us act of individual and triba. 
friendship, but is not inconsistant with other relations, of the early south- 
ern position, and irrascible temper of the Shawnee tribe. Their name it- 
self, which is a derivative from 0-sha-wan-ong, the place of the South, is 
strong presumptive evidence of a former residence in, or origin from, the 
extreme south. Mr. John Johnston, who was for many years the govern- 
ment agent of this tribe at Piqua, in Ohio, traces them, in an article in the 
Archselogia Americana (vol. 1, p. 273) to the Suwanee river in Florida, 
Mr. Gallatin, in the second volume of the same work (p. 65) points out 
^their track, from historical sources of undoubted authority, to the banks 
of the upper Savannah, in Georgia ; but remarks that they have only been 
well known to us since 1680. They are first mentioned in our scattered 
Indian annals, by De Laet, in 1632. 

It may further be said^, in relation to Metoxon's tradition, that there is 
authority for asserting, that in the flight of the Shawnees from the south, 
a part of them descended the Kentucky river west, to the Ohio valley, 
where, in after times, the Shawnees of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 
rather formed a re-union with this division of their kindred than led the 
way for them. 



To depart one step from barbarism, is to take one step towards ci\^iliza- 
tion. To abandon the lodge of bark — to throw aside the blanket — to dis- 
continue the use of paints — or to neglect the nocturnal orgies of the wa- 
beno, are as certain indications of incipient civilization, as it unquestion- 
ably is, to substitute alphabetical characters for rude hieroglyphics, or to 
prefer the regular cadences of the gamut, to the wild chanting of the chi- 
chigwun. 



BOSH-KWA-DOSH, 

OR 

THE QUADRUPED TOH THE HAIR BLOWN OFF ITS SKIN. 

There was once a man who found himself alone in the world. He 
knew not whence he came, nor who were his parents, and he wandered 
about from place to place, in search of something-. At last he became 
wearied and fell asleep. He dreamed that he heard a voice saying-, 
" Nosis," that is, my grandchild. When he awoke he actually heard 
the word repeated, and looking around, he saw a tiny little animal 
hardly big enough to be seen on the plain. While doubting whether the 
voice could come from such a diminutive source, the little animal said to 
him, " My grandson, you will call me Bosh-kwa-dosh. Why are you so 
desolate. Listen to me, and you shall find friends and be happy. 
You must take me up and bind me to your body, and never put me 
aside, and success in life shall attend you." He obeyed the voice, sewing 
up the little animal in the folds of a string, or narrow belt, which he tied 
around his body, at his navel. He then set out in search of some one like 
himself, or other object. He walked a long time in woods without seeing 
man or animal. He seemed all alone in the world. At length he came 
to a place where a stump was cut, and on going over a hill he descried a 
large town in a plain. A wide road led through the middle of it ; but 
what seemed strange was, that on one side there were no inhabitants in 
the lodges, while the other side was thickly inhabited. He wallied boldly 
into the town. 

The inhabitants came out and said ; " Why here is the being we have 
iieard so much of — here is Anish-in-a-ba. See his eyes, and his teeth in 
a half circle — see the Wyaukenawbedaid ! See his bowels, how they are 
formed ;" — for it seems they could look through him. The king's son, the 
Mudjekewis, was particularly kind to him, and calling him brother-in-law, 
commanded that he should be taken to his father's lodge and received with 
attention. The king gave him one of his daughters. These people, 
(who are supposed to be human, but whose rank in the scale of being is 
left equivocal,) passed much of their time in play and sports and trials of 
various kinds. When some time had passed, and he had become re- 

106 



BOSH-KWA-DOSH. 



107 



freshed and rested, he was invited to join in these sports. T;ae first test 
which they put him to, was the trial of frost. At some distance was a 
large body of frozen water, and the trial consisted in lying down naked 
on the ice, and seeing who could endure the longest. He went out with 
two young men, who began, by pulling off their garments, and lying 
down on their faces. He did likewise, only keeping on the narrow magic 
belt with the tiny little animal sewed in it ; for he felt that in this alone was 
to be his reliance and preservation. His competitors laughed and tittered 
during the early part of the night, and amused themselves by thoughts of 
his fate. Once they called out to him, but he made no reply. He felt a 
manifest warmth given out by his belt. About midnight finding they were 
still, he called out to them, in return, — " What!" said he, "are you be- 
numbed already, I am but just beginning to feel a little cold." All was si- 
lence. He, however, kept his position till early day break, when he got 
up and went to them. They were both quite dead, and frozen so hard, 
that the flesh had bursted out under their finger nails, and their teeth 
stood out. As he looked more closely, what was his surprise to find them 
both transformed into buffalo cows. He tied them together, and carried 
them towards the village. As he came in sight, those who had wished 
his death were disappointed, but the Mudjekewis, who was really his 
friend, rejoiced. See !" said he " but one person approaches, — it is my 
brother-in-law." He then threw down the carcasses in triumph, but it 
was found that by their death he had restored two inhabitants to the 
before empty lodges, and he afterwards perceived, that every one of these 
beings, whom he killed, had the like effect, so that the depopulated part 
of the village soon became filled with people. 

The next test they put him to, was the trial of speed. He was chal- 
lenged to the race ground, and began his career with one whom he 
thought to be a man ; but every thing was enchanted here, for he soon 
discovered that his competitor was a large black bear. The animal 
outran him, tore up the ground, and sported before him, and put out its 
large claws as if to frighten him. He thought of his little guardian spirit 
in the belt, and wishing to have the swiftness of the Kakake, i. e. 
sparrow hawk, he found himself rising from the ground, and with 
the speed of this bird he outwent his rival, and won the race, while 
the bear came up exhausted and lolling out his tongue. His friend the 
Mudjekewis stood ready, with his war-club, at the goal, and the 
moment the bear came up, dispatched him. He then turned to the 
assembly, who had wished his friend and brother's death, and after re- 
proaching them, he lifted up his club and began to slay them on every 
side. They fell in heaps on all sides ; but it was plain to be seen, the 
moment they fell, that they were not men, but animals, — foxes, wolves, 
tigers, lynxes, and other kinds, lay thick around the Mudjekewis. 

Still the villagers were not satisfied. They thought the trial of frost, 



108 



BOSH-KWA-DOSH. 



had not been fairly accomplished, and wished it repeated. He agreed to 
repeat it, but being fatigued with the race, he undid his guardian belt, and 
laying it under his head, fell asleep. When he awoke, he felt re- 
freshed, and feeling strong in his own strength, he went forward to 
renew the trial on the ice, but quite forgot the belt, nor did it at all occur 
to him when he awoke, or when he lay down to repeat the trial. 
About midnight his limbs became stiff, the blood soon ceased to circulate, 
and he was found in the morning, a stiff corpse. The victors took 
him up and carried him to the village, where the loudest tumult of vic- 
torious joy was made, and they cut the body into a thousand pieces, that 
each one might eat a piece. 

The Mudjekewis bemoaned his fate, but his wife was inconsolable. She 
lay in a state of partial distraction, in the lodge. As she lay here, she 
thought she heard some one groaning. It was repeated through the night, 
and in the morning, she carefully scanned the place, and running her fingers 
through the grass, she discovered the secret belt, on the spot where her hus- 
band had last reposed. " Aubishin !" cried the belt — that is, untie me, or 
unloose me. Looking carefully, she found the small seam which enclosed 
the tiny little animal. It cried out the more earnestly "Aubishin!" and 
when she had carefully ripped the seams, she beheld, to her surprise, a mi- 
nute, naked little beast, smaller than the smallest new born mouse, without 
any vestige of hair, except at the tip of its tail, it could crawl a few inches, 
but reposed from fatigue. It then went forward again. At each movement 
it would pupowee^ that is to say, shake itself, like a dog, and at each shake it 
became larger. This it continued until it acquired the strength and size of 
a middle sized dog, when it ran off 

The mysterious dog ran to the lodges, about the village, looking for the 
bones of his friend, which he carried to a secret place, and as fast as he 
found them arranged all in their natural order. At length he had formed all 
the skeleton complete, except the heel bone of one foot. It so happened that 
two sisters were out of the camp, according to custom, at the time the body 
was cut up, and this heel was sent out to them. The dog hunted every 
lodge, and being satisfied that it was not to be found in the camp, he sought 
it outside of it, and found the lodge of the two sisters. The younger sister 
was pleased to see him, and admired and patted the pretty dog, but the elder 
sat mumbling the very heel-bone he was seeking, and was surly and sour, 
and repelled the dog, although he looked most wistfully up in her face, 
while she sucked the bone from one side of her mouth to the other. At last 
she held it in such a manner that it made her cheek stick out, when the dog, 
by a quick spring, seized the cheek, and tore cheek and bone away and 
fled. 

He now completed the skeleton, and placing himself before it, uttered, a 
hollow, low, long-drawn-out-howl, when the bones came compactly toge- 
ther. He then modulated his howl, when the bones knit together and 



BOSH-KWA-DOSH. 



109 



became tense. The third howl brought sinews upon them, and the fourth, 
flesh. He then turned his head upwards, looking into the sky, and gave 
a howl, which caused every one in the village to startle, and the ground 
itself to tremble, at which the breath entered into his body, and he first 
breathed and then arose. " Hy kow!" I have overslept myself, he 
exclaimed, " I will be too late for the trial." "Trial !" said the dog, " I told 
you never to let me be separate from your body, you have neglected this. 
You were defeated, and your frozen body cut into a thousand pieces, and 
scattered over the village, but my skill has restored you. Ne w I will de- 
clare myself to you, and show who and what I am !" 

He then began to PUPOA^rEE, or shake himself, and at every shake, he 
grew. His body became heavy and massy, his legs thick and long, with 
big clumsy ends, or feet. He still shook himself, and rose and swelled. 
A long snout grew from his 'head, and two great shining teeth out of his 
mouth. His skin remained as it was, naked, and only a tuft of hair 
grew on his tail. He rose up above the trees. He was enormous. " I 
should fill the earth," said he, " were I to exert my utmost power, and all 
there is on the earth would not satisfy me to eat. Neither could it fatten 
me or do me good. I should want more. It were useless, therefore, and 
the gift I have, I will bestow on you. The animals shall henceforth be 
your food. They were not designed to feed on man, neither shall they 
hereafter do it, but shall feed him, and he only shall prey on beasts. But 
you will respect me, and not eat my kind. 

[The preceding is a traditionary tale of Maidosegee, an aged and respected hunter, 
of Sault-ste-Mairie, who was the ruUng chief of the band of Chippewas at those falls, 
and the progenitor of the present line of ruling chiefs. It is preserved through the 
Johnston family, where he was a frequent guest, prior to 1810, and was happy to while 
away many of his winter's evenings, in return for the ready hospitalities which were 
sure to await him at the house of the Indian's friend.] 



MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG, 

OR 

THE TRADITIONARY STORY OF THE RED HEAD AND HIS 
TWO SONS. 

BY NABINOI, AN AGED ODJIBWA CHIEF. 

Mash-kwa-sha-kwong, was a first rate hunter, and he loved the chase 
exceedingly, and pursued it with unceasing vigilance. One day, on his 
return home, arriving at his lodge, he was informed by his two sons, who 
were but small then, that they were very lonesome, because their mother 
was in the habit of daily leaving them alone, and this occurred so soon as 



110 



MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. 



he started upon his daily chase. This circumstance was not unknown to 
Mash-kwa-sha-kwong, but he seemed fully aware of it ; he took his boys 
in his arms and kissed them, and told them that their mother behaved 
improperly and was acting the part of a wicked and faithless woman. 
But Mash-kwa-sha-kwong behaved towards his wife as if ignorant of her 
vile course. One morning rising very early, he told his sons to take cou- 
rage, and that they must not be lonesome, he also strictly enjoined them 
not to absent themselves nor quit their lodge ; after this injunction was 
given to the boys, he made preparations, and starting much earlier than 
usual, he travelled but a short distance from his lodge, when he halted and 
secreted himself After waiting a short time, he saw his wife coming out 
of their lodge, and immediately after a man made his appearan'ce and 
meeting Mash-kwa-sha-kwong' s wife, they greeted one another. His 
suspicions were now confirmed, and when he saw them in the act of car- 
rying on an illegal intercourse, his anger arose, he went up to them and 
killed them with one blow ; he then dragged them both to his lodge, and 
tying them together, he dug a hole beneath the fire-place in his lodge and 
buried them. He then told his sons that it was necessary that he should 
go away, as he would surely be killed if he remained, and their safety 
would depend upon their ability of keeping the matter a secret. He gave 
his eldest son a small bird, (Kichig-e-chig-aw^-na-she) to roast for his small 
brother over the ashes and embers where their mother was buried, he also 
provided a small leather bag, and then told his sons the necessity of his im- 
mediate flight to heaven, or to the skies. And that it would be expedient 
for them to fly and journey southward, and thus prepared their minds for 
the separation about to take place. " By and bye," said Mash-kwa-sha- 
kwong to his sons, " persons will come to you and enquire for me and for 
your mother, you will say to them that I am gone hunting, and your little 
brother in the mean time will continually point to the fire place, this will 
lead the persons to whom I allude, to make inquiries of the cause of this 
pointing, and you will tell them that you have a little bird roasting for 
your brother, this w^ill cause them to desist from further inquiry at the 
time. As soon as they are gone escape! While you are journeying 
agreeably to my instructions, I will look from on high upon you, I will 
lead and conduct you, and you shall hear my voice from day to day." 
Mash-kwa-sha-kwong at this time gave his sons an awl, a beaver's toothy 
and a hone, also a dry coal, and directed them to place a small piece of 
the coal on the ground every evening, so soon as they should encamp^ 
from which fire would be produced and given to them ; he told his eldest 
son to place his brother in the leather bag, and in that manner carry him 
upon his back ; he then bade them farewell. 

The two boys being thus left alone in the lodge, and while m the act 
of roasting the little bird provided for them, a man came in, and then 
another, md another, until they numbered ten in all : the youngest boy 



MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. 



Ill 



would from time to time point at the fire, and the men enq>uired to know 
the reason, the eldest hoy said that he was roasting a bird for his brother, 
and digging the ashes produced it. They enquired, where their 
father and mother were, the boy answered them saying, that their father 
was absent hunting, and that their mother had gone to chop and collect 
wood ; upon this information the men rose and searched around the out- 
skirts of the lodge, endeavouring to find traces of the man and his wife, 
but they were not successful, and returned to the lodge. Before this, how- 
ever, and during the absence of the ten men, Mash-kwa--sha-kwong's 
eldest son placed his little brother in the leather bag, (Ouskemood,) and ran 
away southward. 

One of the ten men observed, that the smallest boy had repeatedly 
pointed to the fire place, and that they might find out something by dig- 
ging ; they set to work, and found the woman and the man tied together. 
On this discovery their wrath was kindled, they brandished their weapons, 
denouncing impercations upon Mash-kwa-sha-kvvong, who was of course 
suspected of having committed the deed. 

The ten men again renewed their search in order to avenge themselves 
upon the perpetrator of this dark deed, but Mash-kwa-sha-kwong, in order 
to avoid instant death, had sought a large hollow tree, and entering at the 
bottom or root part, passed through and reached the top of it, from whence 
he took his flight upwards to the sky. His pursuers finally traced him, 
and followed him as far as the tree, and into the sky, with loud and un- 
ceasing impercations of revenge and their determination to kill him. The 
spirit of the mother alone followed her children. About mid-day the 
boys heard, as they ran, a noise in the heavens like the rolling of distant 
thunder.* The boys continued their journey south, when the noise 
ceased ; towards night they encamped ; they put a small piece of the coal 
on the ground, then a log of fire-wood was dropped down from the 
skies to them, from whence a good blazing fire was kindled. This v/as 
done daily, and when the fire was lit, a raccoon would fall from on high 
upon the fire, and in this manner the boys were fed, and this over-ruling 
care they experienced daily. In the evenings at their camping place, 
and sometimes during the day, the Red Head's voice was heard speaking 
to his children, and encouraging them to use their utmost exertions to fly 
from the pursuit of their mother. To aid them in escaping, they were 
told to throw away their awl, and immediately there gi'ew a strong and 
almost impassable hedge of thorn bushes behind them, in their path, which 
the pursuing mother could scarcely penetrate, and thus impeding her pro- 

* Note by Mr. George Johnston, from whom this tale was received. — Any thing of 
the kind, or a similar noise heard, is attributed by the Indian, to this day, as an indica- 
tion of the contention between Mash-kwa-sha-kwong and his pursuers, and hence a 
prelude to wars and contentions among the nations of the world. 



112 



MASH-KWA-SH A-KWONG. 



gress, tearing away her whole body and leaving nothing but the head. 
So they escaped the first day. 

The next day they resumed their march and could distinctly hear the 
noise of combat in the sky, as if it were a roaring thunder ; they also 
heard the voice of their mother behind them, desiring her eldest son to 
stop and wait for her, saying that she wished to give the breast to his 
brother ; then again Mash-kwa-sha-kwong's voice, encouraging his sons to 
fly for their lives, and saying that if their mother overtook them she would 
surely kill them. 

In the evening of the second day the boys prepared to encamp, and the 
noise of combat on high ceased ; on placing a small piece of the coal on 
the ground, a log and some fire-wood was let down as on the preceding 
night, and the fire was kindled, and then the raccoon placed on it for 
their food. This was fulfilling the promise made by their father, that they 
would be provided for during their flight. The beaver's tooth was here 
thrown away, and this is the cause why the northern country now abounds 
with beaver, and also the innumerable little lakes and marshes, and con- 
sequently the rugged and tedious travelling now experienced. 

On the third day the boys resumed their flight, and threw away their 
hone, and it became a high rocky mountainous ridge, the same now seen 
on the north shore of these straits, (St. Mary's) which was a great obstacle 
m the way of the woman of the Head, for this was now her name, be- 
cause that part alone remained of her whole frame, and with it she was 
incessantly uttering determinations to kill her eldest son ; the boys finally 
reached the fishing place known as the eddy of Wah-zah-zhawing, at the 
rapids of Bawating, situated on the north shore of the river. Here Mash- 
kwa-sha-kwong, told his sons that he had himself been overtaken in his 
flight by his pursuers and killed, and he appeared to them in the shape of 
a red headed wood-pecker, or a mama. This is a bird that is seldom or 
never attacked by birds of prey, for no vestiges of his remains are ever seen 
or found by the Indian hunter. " Now my sons," said the red headed 
wood-pecker, " I have brought you to this river, you will now see your 
grand father and he will convey you across to the opposite side." Then 
the boys looked to the southern shore of the river, and they saw in the 
middle of the rapid, an Oshuggay standing on a rock ; to the Oshuggay 
the boys spoke, and accosted him as their grand father, requesting hipi 
to carry them across the river Bawating. The Oshuggay stretching his 
long neck over the river to the place where the hoys, stood, told them to 
get upon his head and neck, and again stretching to the southern shore, 
he landed the boys in safety, upon a prairie : the crane was seen walking 
in state, up and down the prairie. 

The persevering mother soon arrived at Wah-zah-hawing, and im- 
mediately requested the Oshuggay to cross her over, that she was in pur- 



MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. 



113 



suit of her children and stating- that she wished to overtake them ; but the 
Oshuggay seemed well aware of her character, and objected to conveying 
her across, giving her to understand that she was a lewd and bad wo- 
man ; he continued giving her a long moral lecture upon the course she 
had pursued and the bad results to mankind in consequence, such as 
quarrels, murders, deaths, and hence widowhood. 

The woman of the Head persisted in her request of being conveyed 
Across. Objections and entreaties followed. She talked as if she were still 
a woman, whose Favour was to be sought ; and he, as if he were above 
such favours. After this dialogue the Oshuggay said that he would 
convey her across, on the condition that she would adhere strictly to 
his injunctions ; he told her not to touch the bare part of his head, but to 
get upon the hollow or crooked part of his neck ; to this she agreed, and 
got on. The Oshuggay then withdrew his long neck to about half way 
across, when feeling that she had forgotten her pledge he dashed her head 
upon the rocks, and the small fish, that were so abundant instantly fed 
upon the brain and fragments of the skull and became large white fish. 
"A fish" said the Oshuggay, "that from this time forth shall be abundant, 
and remain in these rapids to feed the Indians and their issue, from genera- 
tion to generation."* 

After this transaction of the Oshuggay's, landing the boys safely across, 
and dashing the woman's head upon the rocks, he spake to the Crane and 
mutually consulting one another in relation to Mash-kwa-sha-kwong's sons 
they agreed to invite two women from the eastward, of the tribe of the Was- 
sissiG, and the two lads took them for wives. The Oshuggay plucked one 
of his largest wing feathers and gave it to the eldest boy, and the Crane 
likewise did the same, giving his feathers to the youngest ; they were told 
to consider the feathers as their sons after this, one feather appeared like 
an Oshuggay and the other like a young Crane. By and by they appeared 
like human beings to the lads. Thus the alliance was formed with the Was- 
sissig, and tlie circumstance of the Oshuggay and Crane interesting them- 
selves in behalf of the boys and the gift to them of their feathers and the 
result, is ih-e origin of the Indian Totem. 

Here Mash-kwa-sha-kwong's sons were told that they would be con- 
sidered as chieftains and that this office would be hereditary and continue 
in their generations. After this, they mukiplied exceedingly and became 
strong and powerful. About this time the Obinangoes, (or the Bears' 
Totem) came down from Shaugah-wah-mickong, near the extremity of 
Lake Superior. On their way eastward they were surprised on reaching 
Bawating to find such a numerous population of human beings : they were 

* The small white shells that the white fish live upon, and the white substance found 
in its gizzard are to this day considered by the Indians, the brain and skull of the woman 
of the Head. 

8 



14 



MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG. 



not aware of its oeing in existence ; fear came upon the Obinangoes, and 
they devised the plan of securing friendship with the Oshuggays and 
Cranes, by adopting and claiming a relationship with them, and calling 
them their grandsons. This claim was yielded, and they were permitted to 
remain at Bawaiting upon the score of relationship thus happily attained. 
The Obenangoes eventually emigrated eastward and settled upon the 
northern coast of Lakes Huron and Ontario. 

Population increased so rapidly at Bawaiting, that it was necessary to 
form new villages, some settling on the Garden River, some upon the 
Pakaysaugauegan River, and others upon the island of St. Joseph's, and 
upon the Menashkong Bay and Mashkotay Saugie River. 

About this time, a person in the shape of a human being came down 
from the sky ; his clothing was exceedingly pure and white ; he was seated 
as it were in a nest, with a very fine cord attached to it, by which this 
mysterious person was let down, and the cord or string reached heaven. 
He addressed the Indians in a very humane, mild, and compasionate tone, 
saying that they were very poor and needy, but telling them that they 
were perpetually asleep, and this was caused by the Mache Monedo who 
was in the midst of them, and leading them to death and ruin. 

This mysterious personage informed them also that above, where he 
came from, there was no night, that the inhabitants never slept, that it was 
perpetually day and they required no sleep ; that Kezha Monedo was their 
light. He then invited four of the Indians to ascend up with him promis- 
ing that they would be brought back in safety ; that an opportunity would 
thereby present itself to view the beauty of the sky, or heavens. But the 
Indians doubted and feared lest the cord should break, because it appeared 
to them so small. They did not believe it possible it could bear theii 
weight. With this objection they excused themselves. They were, however, 
again assured that ths cord was sufficiently strong and that Kezha Monedo 
had the power to make it so. Yet the Indians doubted and feared, and 
did not accompany the messenger sent down to them. After this re- 
fusal the mysterious person produced a small bow and arrows with which 
he shot at the Indians in different parts of their bodies : the result was, 
the killing of multitudes of small white worms, which he showed to them ; 
teUing them that they were the Mache Monedo which caused them to 
sleep, and prevented their awakening from their death-like state. 

This divine messenger then gave to the Indians laws and rules, where- 
by they should be guided : first, to love and fear Kezha Monedo, and next 
that they must love one another, and be charitable and hospitable ; and 
finally, that they must not covet their neighbours property, but acquire it 
by labour and honest industry. He then instituted the grand medicine or 
metay we win dance : this ceremony was to be observed annually, and 
with due solemnity, and the Indians, said Nabinoi, experienced much good 
from it ; but unfortunately, the foolish young men were cheated by Mache 



MASH-KWA-SHA.KWONG. 



115 



Monedo, who caused them to adopt the Wabano dance and its ceremonies. 
This latter is decidedly an institution of the sagemaus, or evil spirits, 
and this was finally introduced into the metay we wining, (i. e. medicine 
dance) and thereby corrupted it. 

The old chief continued his moral strain thus : While the Indians were 
instructed by the heavenly messenger they were told that it would snow 
continually for the space of five years, winter and summer, and the end 
would then be nigh at hand ; and again that it would rain incessantly as 
many winters and summers more, which would cause the waters ^o rise and 
overflow the earth, destroying trees and all manner of vegetation. After 
this, ten winters and summers of drought would follow, drying up the 
land, and mostly the lakes and rivers ; not a cloud would be seen during 
this period. The earth would become so dry, that it will then burn up with 
fire of itself, and it will also burn the waters to a certain depth, until it at- 
tains the first created earth and waters. Then the good Indians will rise 
from death to enjoy a new earth, filled with an abundance of all manner 
of living creatures. The only animal which will not be seen is the beaver 
The bad Indians will not enjoy any portion of the new earth ; they will be 
condemned and given to the evil spirits. 

Four generations, he went on to say, have now passed away, since that 
brotherly love and charity, formerly known, still existed among the In- 
dians. There was in those ancient times an annual meeting among the In- 
dians, resembling the French New Year's Day, which was generally ob- 
served on the new moon's first appearance, Gitchy Monedo gesus. The 
Indians of our village would visit these of another, and sometimes meet 
one another dancing ; and on those occasions they would exchange bows 
and arrows, their rude axes, awls, and kettles, and their clothing. This 
was an annual festival, which was duly observed by them. In those 
days the Indians lived happy ; but every thing is now changed to the In- 
dian mind, indicating the drawing near and approach of the end of time. 
The Indians who still adhere to the laws of the heavenly messenger ex- 
perience happiness ; and, on the contrary, concluded the old man, those 
Avho are wicked and adhere to the Wabano institution, generally meet 
with their reward; and it is singular to say that they generally come 
to their end by accidents, such as drowning, or miserable deaths. 

He then reverted to the former part of ^his story. The Oshuggays, and 
the Cranes quarrelled, and this quarrel commenced on a trivial point. It 
appears that the Cranes took a pole, without leave, from the Oshuggays, 
and they broke the pole ; this circumstance led to a separation. The 
Oshuggays emigrated south, and are now known as the Shawnees. 



W A-W A-BE-ZO-WIIS , 



OR 

THE SWING ON THE LAKE SHORE. 

FROM THE TRADITIONS OF THE ODJIBWAS. 

There was an old hag of a woman living with her daughter-in-law, 
and son, and a little orphan boy, whom she was bringing up. When 
her son-in-law came home from hunting, it was his custom to bring 
his wife the moose's lip, the kidney of the bear, or some other choice 
bits of different animals. These she would cook crisp, so as to make a 
sound with her teeth in eating them. This kind attention of the hunter 
to his wife, at last, excited the envy of the old woman. She- wished 
to have the sam.e luxuries, and in order to get them she finally resolved to 
make way with her son's wife. One day, she asked her to leave her in- 
fant son to the care of the orphan boy, and come out and swing with , 
her. She took her to the shore of a lake, where there was a high range 
of rocks overhanging the water. Upon the top of this rock, she erected 
a swing. She then undressed, and fastened a piece of leather around her 
body, and commenced swinging, going over the precipice at every swing. 
She continued it but a short time, when she told her daughter to do the 
same. The daughter obeyed. She undressed, and tying the leather 
string as she was directed, began swinging. When the swing had got 
in full motion and well a going, so that it went clear beyond the precipice, 
at every sweep, the old woman slyly cut the cords and let her daughter 
drop into the lake. She then put on her daughter's clothing, and thus dis- 
guised went home in the dusk of the evening and counterfeited her ap- 
pearance and duties. She found the child crying, and gave it the breast, 
but it would not draw. The orphan boy asked her where its mother was. 
She answered, " She is still swinging." He said, " I shall go and look 
for her." "No!" said she, "you must not — what should you go for?" 
When the husband came in, in the evening, he gave the coveted morsel 
to his supposed wife. He missed his mother-in-law, but said nothing. 
She eagerly ate the dainty, and tried to keep the child still. The hus- 
band looked rather astonished to see his wife studiously averting her face, 
and asked her why the child cried so. She said, she did not know — that 
it would not draw. 

In the meantime the orphan boy went to the lake shores, and found no 
one. He mentioned his suspicions, and while the old woman was out 
getting wood, he told him all that he had heard or seen. The man thea 

116 



WA-WA-BE-ZO-WIN. 



117 



painted his face black, and placed his spear upside down in the earth and 
requested the Great Spirit to send lightning, thunder, and rain, in the 
hope that the body of his wife might arise from the water. He then 
began to fast, and told the boy to take the child and play on the lake 
?hore. 

We must now go back to the swing. After the wife had plunged into 
ihe lake, she found herself taken hold of by a water tiger, whose tail 
twisted itself round her body, and drew her to the bottom. There she 
found a fine lodge, and all things ready for her reception, and she became 
■:he wife of the water tiger. Whilst the children v/ere playing along the 
shore, and the boy was casting pebbles into the lake, he saw a gull com- 
ing from its centre, and flying towards the shore, and when on shore, the 
bird immediately assumed the human shape. When he looked again he 
recognized the lost mother. She had a leather belt around her loins, and 
another belt of white metal, which was. in reality, the tail of the water 
tiger, her husband. She suckled the babe, and said to the boy — " Come 
here with him, whenever he cries, and I will nurse him." 

The boy carried the child home, and told these things to the father. 
When the child again cried, the father went also with the boy to the 
lake shore, and hid himself in a clump of trees. Soon the appearance 
of a gull was seen, with a long shining belt, or chain, and as soon as it 
came to the shore, it assumed the mother's shape, and began to suckle the 
child. The husband had brought along his spear, and seeing the shining 
chain, he boldly struck it and broke the links apart. He then took his 
wife and child home, with the orphan boy. When they entered the 
lodge, the old woman looked up, but it was a look of despair, she instantly 
dropped her head. A rustling was heard in the lodge, and the next mo- 
ment, she leaped up, and flew out of the lodge, and was never heard of 
more. 



The name of God, among the ancient Mexicans, was Teo, a word sel 
dom found, except in compound phrases. Among the Mohawks and 
Onondagas, it is Neo. W^ith the western Senecas, as given by Smith, 
Owayneo. With the Odjibwas, Monedo ; with the Ottowas, Maneto. 
Many modifications of the word by prefixes, to its radix Edo, appear 
among the cognate dialects It is remarkable that there is so striking a 
similarity in the principal syllable, and it is curious to observe that Edo, 
is, in sound, both the Greek term Deo, and the Azteek Teo, transposed. 
Is there any thing absolutely fixed in the sounds of languages ? 



TAKOZID, 



OR 

THE SHORT-FOOT. 

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

Most of the individuals who have figured amongst the Red Race in 
America, have appeared under circumstances which have precluded any 
thing like a full and consistent biography. There is, in truth, but little in 
savage life, to furnish materials for such biographies. The very scanti- 
ness of events determines this. A man suddenly appears among these 
tribes as a warrior, a negociator, an orator, or a prophet, by a name that 
nobody ever before heard of. He excites attention for a short time, and 
then sinks back into the mass of Indian society, and is no more heard of. 
His courage, his eloquence, or his diplomatic skill, are regarded as evi- 
dences of talent, and energy of thought or action, which, under better au- 
spices, might have produced a shining and consistent character. But he 
has been left b^r events, and is sunk in the mass. He appeared rather like 
an erratic body, or flash, than a fixed light amid his people. The circum 
stances that brought him into notice have passed away. A victory has 
been v/on, a speech made, a noble example given. The affair has been 
adjusted, the tribe resumed its hunting, or corn-planting, or wandering, 
or internal discords, and the new name, which promised for a while to raise 
a Tamerlane, or Tippoo Saib in the west, settles down in the popular 
mind ; and if it be not wholly lost, is only heard of now and then, as one 
of the signatures to some land treaty. There is not, in fact, sufficient, in 
the population, military strength, or importance of the afiairs of most of 
our tribes, to work out incidents for a sustained and full biography. Even 
the most considerable personages of past times, who have been honoured 
with such full notices, have too much resemblance to a stout boy in his 
father's regimentals. They hang loosely about him. The most that can 
be done — all indeed which the occasion requires in general — is a 
sketch of such particular events, in aboriginal history, as the individual 
has connected his name with. It is proposed in the progress of this work, 
to furnish some of such sketches from the unwritten annals of the west 
and the north. 

Among that class of aboriginal chiefs and actors, who have not risen to 
the highest distinction, or attained general notoriety out of the circle of 
their own tribes, was Takozid, or the Short-Foot ; a Mukundwa, or pil- 
lager ; a fierce, warlike, and predatory tribe of the Odjibwa Algonquin 

118 



TAKOZID, OR THE SHORT-FOOT. 



119 



stock, who, at an early time seated themselves on the sources of the Mis- 
sissippi, making their head quarters at Leech Lake. To this place, their 
traditions" assert, they came from Chagoimegon, or still farther east, prior 
to the discovery of the country hy Europeans. They were consequently 
intruders in, or conquerors of the country, and drove back some other 
people. It seems equally probable that this people were the Dacotahs, the 
Naddowassies, or as it is abbreviated, Sioux, of early French writers. The 
Sioux are a numerous and warlike stock, who occupy portions of the banks of 
the Missouri and the Mississippi, at, and about the latitude of St. Anthony's 
Falls. A hereditary war of w^hich the memory of man runneth not to 
the contrary," was the consequence of this ancient inroad. Of all this 
region of country we can speak from personal knowledge, having tra- 
versed it at sundry times, and in various directions. It is in local remi" 
niscence, little more than a widely extended scene of Indian battles, ambus- 
cades and murders. There is hardly a prominent stream, plain or forest, 
which is not referred to, as the traveller proceeds, as the particular locality 
of some fight, tragedy, or hair-breath escape among the Red Men. The 
Olympic games were not a surer test of fame in successful rivalry, than is 
this wide area of aboriginal warfare, for the opposing nations of the Sioux 
and Chippewas. War is the prime avenue to distinction to the Indian 
mind. As soon as a hunter has acquired any distinction, and begins to 
look upon himself as a person of courage and address, he turns his efforts 
to the war path. Whatever else he is famous for, this is the crowning 
test and seal of his reputation. And none have pursued it with more in- 
cessant devotion than the Chippewas. 

Takozid determined from his earliest youth to take a part in the strife 
for barbaric glory. He early joined the war parties going into the great 
plains. He learned their arts, repeated their songs, and became expert in 
all the warrior's arts. He established the reputation of a brave young 
man. The next step was to lead a w^ar party himself He courted popu- 
larity by generosity, self denial, and attention to their rehgious rites and 
ceremonies. These things may be done on a smaller scale, as effectually 
among a band of savages, as in the hall or forum. He succeeded. He 
raised a war party, conducted it into the plains, discovered his enemies, 
approached them slily, fell upon them, defeated them, and returned in tri- 
umph with their scalps to his village. His deep and hollow cue kwan 
DUM, or death-cry of victory as he came to the eminence which overlooked 
his village, announced all this before he set foot in his village : and the 
number of his scalps. 

These exploits placed him on the pinnacle of fame. It is a curious fact, 
m the lives of our Red men, to observe that war is a stimulus to poligamy. 
One of the first things he thought of, as a proper reward for his bravery, 
was to take another wife. In this, his friends and partizans concurred, 
although he had no cause of dissatisfaction with his first wife, to whom he 



120 



TAKOZID, OR THE SHORT-FOOT. 



had been married but a short time, and who had borne him a son. Time 
added confirmation to this plan. It was talked of, and even debated by the 
chiefs. It was conceded to be due to his bravery. All, indeed, appeared 
to approve of it, but his wife. She heard of the rumor with alarm, and 
received the account of its confirmation, with pain. It could no longer be 
doubted, for the individual who was to share, na}^, control the lodge 
with her was named, and the consent of her parents had been obtained. 

Monon, or the Little-Iron-Wood-Tree, as she was called, was a female 
of no ordinary firmness of character. She was ardently attached to her 
husband, not the less so for his rising fame, jealous of her rights, and 
prompted by strong feelings to maintain them. In all these points she 
was above the generality of her country women. Like others, however, 
in a community where poligamy was common, she might have submitted 
at length, to her fate, had not her rival in the affections of Takozid, ap- 
pealed to a deeper seated principle, and waked up, in the breast of the in- 
jured wife, the feeling of revenge : a principle reckless enough, in com- 
munities where there are the safeguards of education and Christianity 
to restrain and regulate it ; but horrible in wild and roving bands of bar- 
barians. Monon's fidelity was slandered. She wns a pure and high 
minded woman, and the imputation goaded her to the quick. 

When this slander first reached her ears, through the ordinary chan- 
nel of village gossip, a chord was struck, which vibrated through every 
throe, and steeled her heart for some extraordinary act ; although none 
could anticipate the sanguinary deed which marked the nuptial night. 
An Indian marriage is often a matter of little ceremony. It was not so, 
on this occasion. To render the events imposing, many had been invited. 
The bride was dressed in her best apparel. Her father was present. 
Many young and old, males and females were either present or thronged 
around the lodge. .The broad clear blue waters of the lake, studded with 
green islands, spread before the door. A wide grassy lawn, which was 
the village ball and play ground, extended down to its margin. It was 
a public event. A throng had gathered around. Takozid was to be 
married. He was to take a second wife, in the daughter of Obegwud. 
Takozid himself was there. Hilarity reigned within and without. All 
indeed, were there, but the dejected and deserted Monon, who had been 
left with her child, at the chieftain's own lodge. 

But a spirit had been aroused in her breast, which would not permit 
her to remain absent. She crossed the green silently, stealthily. She 
stood gazing awhile at the lake. She approached the bridal lodge. She 
passed easily among the group. She entered the lodge. Nor had any 
one, at that moment, a thought of suspicion or alarm. The bride was 
seated on her envied abbinos ; her affianced husband was at her side. 

All at once, there arose a shrill cry, in the Chippewa tongue. " Thisj 
vociferated the enraged Monon, This for the bastard!" and at each repeti 



TAKOZID, OR THE SHORT-FOOT. 



121 



tion of the words, she raised an Indian poignard, in her hand. The sud- 
denness of her movement had paralyzed every attempt to arrest her. 
Amazement *at in every face. She had plunged a pointed knife into the 
breast of her rival. 

There is little to be added to such a catastrophe. Its very suddenness 
and atrocity appalled every one. Nobody arrested her, and nobody pur- 
sued her. She returned as she came, and re-entered her lodge. Her 
victim never spoke. 

From this moment the fame of Takozid declined. The event appeared 
to have unmanned him. He Avent no more to war. His martial spirits 
appeared to have left him. He sank back into the mass of Indian society, 
and was scarcely ever mentioned. Nor should we, indeed, have recalled 
his name from its obscurity, were it not associated in the Indian reminis- 
cences of Leach lake, with this sanguinary deed. 

I had this relation a few years ago, from a trader, who had lived at 
Leech lake, who personally knew the parties, and whose veracity I 
had no reason at all, to call into question. It is one of the elements that 
go into the sum of my personal observations, on savage life, and as such 1 
cast it among these papers. To judge of the Red race aright, we must 
view it, in all its phases, and if we would perform our duty towards them, 
as christians and men, we should gather our data from small, as well as 
great events, and from afar as well as near. When all has been done, m 
the way of such collections and researches, it will be found, we think, 
that their errors and crimes, whatever they are, assume no deeper dye 
than philanthropy has had reason to apprehend them to take, without a 
knowledge of the principles of the gospel. Thou shalt not kill, is a law, 
yet to be enforced, among more than two hundred thousand souls, who 
bear the impress of a red skin, within the acknowledged limits of the 
American Union. 



MACHINITO, THE EVIL SPIRIT; 

FROM THE LEGENDS OF lAGOU. 

BY MRS. E. OAKES SMITH. 

" The Pagan world not only believes in a myriad of gods, but worships them also 
It is the peculiarity of the North American Indian, that while he believes in as many, 
he worships but one, the Great Spirit." — (Schoolcraft.) 

Chemanitou, being the master of life, at one time became the origin of 
a spirit, that has ever since caused himself and all others of his creation 



122 



INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



a great deal of disquiet. His birth was owing to an accident It was m 
this wise. 

Metowac, or as the white people now call it, Long Island, was origi- 
nally a vast plain, so level and free from^any kind of growth, that it looked 
like a portion of the great sea that had suddenly been made to move back 
and let the sand below appear, which was the case in fact. 

Here it was that Chemanitou used to come and sit, when he wished to 
bring any new creation to the life. The place being spacious and solitary, 
the water upon every side, he had not only room enough, but was free 
from interruption. 

It is well known that some of these early creations were of very great 
size, so that very few could live in the same place, and their strength made 
it difficult for Chemanitou, even to controul them ; for when he has given 
them certain elements, they have the use of the laws that govern these ele- 
ments, till it is his will to take them back to himself Accordingly, it was 
the custom of Chemanitou, when he wished to try the effect of these crea- 
tures, to set them in motion upon the island of Metovvac, and if they did 
not please him, he took the life out before they were suffered to escape. 
He would set up a mammoth or other large animal, in the centre of the 
island, and build him up with great care, somewhat in the manner that a 
cabin or a canoe is made. 

Even to this day may be found traces of what had been done here in 
former years ; and the manner in which the earth sometimes sinks down 
[even wells fall out at the bottom here,] shows that this island is 
nothing more than a great cake of earth, a sort of platter laid upon the sea, 
for the convenience of Chemanitou, who used it as a table upon which he 
might work, never having designed it for anything else ; the margin of the 
Chatiejiac, (the stately swan,) or Hudson river, being better adapted to 
the purposes of habitation. 

When the master of life wished to build up an elephant or mammoth he 
placed four (5^akes of clay upon the ground, at proper distances, which 
were moulded into shape, and became the feet of the animal. 

Now sometimes these were left unfinished ; and to this day the green 
tussocks, to be seen like little islands about the marshes, show where these 
cakes of clay had been placed. 

As Chemanitou went on with his work, the Neebanawbaigs (or water 
spirits,) the Puck-wud-jinnies, (Fairies *) and indeed all the lesser manit- 
toes, used to come and look on, and wonder what it would be, and how it 
would act. 

When the animal was quite done, and had dried a long time in the sun, 
Chemanitou opened a place in the side, and entering in, remained there 
many days. 

* Literally, little men, who vanish. 



INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 123 

When he came forth, the creature began to shiver and sway from side 

10 side, in such a manner as shook the whole island for many leagues. 
If his appearance pleased the master of life he was suffered to depart, and 
it was generally found that these animals plunged into the sea upon the 
north side of the island, and disappeared in the great forests beyond. 

Now at one time Chemanitou was a very long while building an ani- 
mal, of such great bulk, that it looked like a mountain upon the cen- 
tre of the island ; and all the manittoes, from all parts, came to see what it 
was. The Puck-wud-jinnies especially made themselves very merry, 
capering behind his great ears, sitting within his mouth, each perched 
upon a tooth, and running in and out of the sockets of the eyes, think- 
ing Chemanitou, who was finishing off other parts of the' animal, could not 
see them. 

But he can see right through every thing he has made. He was glad 
to see them so lively, and bethought himself of many new creations while 
he watched their motions. 

When the Master of Life had completed this large animal, he was fear- 
ful to give it life, and so it was left upon the island, or work-table of Che- 
manitou, till its great weight caused it to break through, and sinking 
partly down it stuck fast, the head and tail holding it in such a manner 
as to prevent it from going down. 

Chemanitou then lifted up a piece of the back, and found it made a 
very good cavity, into which the old creations, which failed to please him, 
might be thrown. 

He sometimes amused himself by making creatures very small and ac- 
tive, with which he disported av/hile, and finding them of very little use 
in the world, and not so attractive as the little Vanishers, he would take 
out the life, holding it in himself, and then cast them into the cave made 
by the body of the unfinished animal. In this way great quantities of 
very odd shapes were heaped together in this Roncomcomo?i, or " Place of 
Fragments." 

He was always careful to first take out the life. 

One day the Master of Life took two pieces of clay and moulded them 
into two large feet, like those of a panther. He did not make four — there 
were two only. 

He stepped his own feet into them, and found the tread very light and 
springy, so that he might go with great speed, and yet make, no noise. 

Next he built up a pair of very tall legs, in the shape of his own, and 
made them walk about awhile — he was pleased with the motion. Then 
followed a round body, covered with large scales, like the alligator. 

He now found the figure doubling forward, and he fastened a long 
black snake, that was gliding by, to the back part of the body, and let it 
wind itself about a sapling near, which held the body upright, and made 
a very good tail. 



124 



INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



The shoulders were broad and strong, like those of the buffaloe, and 
covered with hair — the neck thick and short, and full at the back. 

Thus far Chemanitou had worked with little thought, but when he 
came to the head he thought a long while. 

He took a round ball of clay into his lap, and worked it over with great 
care. While he thought, he patted the ball upon the top, which made it 
very broad and low; for Chemanitou was thinking of the panther feet, 
and the buffaloe neck. He remembered the Puck-wud-jinnies playing 
in the eye sockets of the great unfinished animal, and he bethought him 
to set the eyes out, like those of a lobster, so that the animal might see 
upon every side. 

He made the forehead broad and full, but low ; for here was to be the 
wisdom of the forked tongue, like that of the serpent, which should be in 
his mouth. He should see all things, and know all things. Here Che- 
manitou stopped, for he saw that he had never thought of such a creation 
before, one with but two feet, a creature who should stand upright, and 
see upon every side. 

The jaws were very strong, with ivory teeth, and gills upon either side, 
which arose and fell whenever breath passed through them. The nose was 
like the beak of the vulture. A tuft of porcupine quills made the scalp-lock. 

Chemanitou held the head out the length of his arm, and turned it first 
upon one side and then upon the other. He passed it rapidly through 
the air, and saw the gills rise and fall, the lobster eyes whirl round, and 
the vulture nose look keen. 

Chemanitou became very sad ; yet he put the head upon the shoulders. 
It was the first time he had made un upright figure. 

It seemed to be the first idea of a man. 

It was now nearly night ; the bats were flying through the air, and the 
roar of wild beasts began to be heard. A gusty wind swept in from the 
ocean, and passed over the island of Metowac, casting the light sand to 
and fro. A heavy scud was skimming along the horizon, while higher 
up in the sky was a dark thick cloud, upon the verge of which the moon 
hung for a moment, and then was shut in. 

A panther came by and stayed a moment, with one foot raised and 
bent inward, while he looked up at the image, and smelt the feet, that 
were like his own. 

A vulture swooped down with a great noise of its wings, and made a 
dash at the beak, but Chemanitou held him back. 

Then came the porcupine, and the lizard, and the snake, each drawn by 
its kind in the image. • 

Chemanitou veiled his face for many hours, and the gusty wind swept 
by, but he did not stir. 

He saw that every beast of the earth seeketh its kind ; and that which 
js like draweth its likeness unto himself. 



INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 125 

The Master of Life thought and thought. The idea grew into his mind 
that at some time he would create a creature who should he made not 
after the things of the earth, hut after himself 

He should link this world to the spirit world, — being made in the like- 
ness of the Great Spirit, he should be drawn unto his likeness. 

Many days and nights, whole seasons, passed while Chemanitou 
thought upon these things. He saw all things. 

Then the Master of Life lifted up his head ; the stars were looking 
down upon the image, and a bat had alighted upon the forehead, spreading 
its great wings upon each side, Chemanitou took the bat and held out its 
whole leathery wings, (and ever since the bat, when he rests, lets his 
body hang down.) so that he could try them over the head of the image. 
He then took the life of the bat away, and twisted off the body, by which 
means the whole thin part fell down over the head, and upon each side, 
making the ears, and a covering for the forehead like that of the hooded 
serpent, 

Chemanitou did not cut off the face of the image below, he went on 
and made a chin, and lips that were firm and round, that they might shut 
in the forked tongue, and the ivory teeth ; and he knew that with the lips 
and the chin it would smile, when life should be given to it. 

The image was now all done but the arms, and Chemanitou saw that 
with a chin it must have hands. He grew more grave. 

He had never given hands to any creature. 

He made the arms and the hands very beautiful, after the manner of his 
own. 

Chemanitou now took no pleasure in his work that was done — it was 
not good in his sight. 

He wished he had not given it hands ; might it not, when trusted with 
life, might it not begin to create ? might it not thwart the plans of the 
master of life himself! 

He looked long at the image. He saw what it would do when life 
should be given it. He knew all things. 

He now put fire in the image ; but fire is not life. 

He put fire within, and a red glow passed through and through it. 
The fire dried the clay of which it was made, and gave the image an ex- 
ceedingly fierce aspect. It shone through the scales upon the breast, and the 
gills, and the bat-winged ears. The lobster eyes were like a hving coal. 

Chemanitou opened the side of the image, but he did not enter. He 
had given it hands and a chin. 

It could smile hke the manittoes themselves. 

He made it walk all about the island of Metowac, that he might see 
how it would act. This he did by means of his will. 

He now put a little life into it, hut he did not take out the fire. Che- 
manitou saw the aspect of the creature would he very terrible, and yet that 



■|^2g INDIAN MYTHOLOGY. 

he could smile m such a manner that he ceased to be ugly. He thought 
much upon these things. He felt it would not be best to let such a 
creature live ; a creature made up mostly; from the beasts of the field, but 
with hands of power, a chin lifting the head upward, and lips holding all 
things within themselves. 

While he thought upon these things, he took the image in his hands 
and cast it into the cave. 

But Chemanitou forgot to take out the life ! 

The creature lay a long time in the cave and did not stir, for his fall 
was very great. He lay amongst the old creations that had been thrown 
in there without life. 

Now when a long time had passed Chemanitou heard a great noise in 
the cave. He looked in and saw the image sitting there, and he was try- 
ing to put together the old broken things that had been cast in as of no value. 

Chemanitou gathered together a vast heap of stones and sand, for large 
rocks are not to be had upon the island, and stopped the mouth of the cave. 
Many days passsed and the noise grew louder within the cave. The 
earth shook, and hot smoke came from the ground. The Manittoes 
crowded to Metowac to see what was the matter. 

Chemanitou came also, for he remembered the image he had cast in 
there, and forgotten to take away the life. 

Suddenly there was a great rising of the stones and sand — the sky 
grew black with wind and dust. Fire played about the ground, and 
water gushed high into the air. 

All the Manittoes fled with fear ; and the image came forth with a great 
noise and most terrible to behold. His life had grown strong within 
him, for the fire had made it very fierce. 

Everything fled before him and cried — Machinito — Machintto — which 
means a god, but an evil god ! 

The above legend is gathered from the traditions of lagou, the great 
Indian narrator, who seems to have dipped deeper into philosoph}^ than 
most of his compeers. The aboriginal language abounds with stories re- 
lated by this remarkable personage, which we hope to bring before the 
public at some future time. Whether subsequent events justify the Indian 
in making Long Island the arena of the production of Machinito or the 
Evil Spirit, will seem more than apocryphal to a white resident. How- 
ever we have nothing to do except to relate the fact as it was related. 

As to these primitive metaphysics, they are at least curious ; and the cool- 
ness with which the fact is assumed that the origin of evil was accidental 
in the process of developing a perfect humanity, would, at an earlier day, 
have been quite appailmg to the schoolmen. E. O. S, 



EEPOSE OF THE SOUL. 



When an Indian corpse is put in a coffin, among the tribes of the Lake- 
Algonquins, the lid is tied down, and not nailed. On depositing it in the 
grave, the rope or string is loosed, and the weight of the earth alone 
reHed on, to keep it in a fixed position. The reason they give for this, is, 
that the soul may have free egress from the body. 

Over the top of the grave a covering of cedar bark is put, to shed the 
rain. This is roof-shaped and the whole structure looks, sHghtly, like a 
house in miniature. It has gable ends. Through one of these, being the 
head, an aperture is cut. On asking a Chippewa why this was done, he 
replied, — " To allow the soul to pass out, and in." 

" I thought," I replied, " that you believed that the soul went up from 
the body at the time of death, to a land of happiness. How, then, can it 
remain in the body ?" 

" There are two souls," replied the Indian philosopher. 

" How can this be ? my friend." 

" It is easily explained," said he. 

" You know that, in dreams, we pass over wide countries, and see hills 
and lakes and mountains, and many scenes, which pass before our eyes, 
and affect us. Yet, at the same time, our bodies do not stir, and there is 
a soul left with the body, — else it would be dead. So, you perceive, it must 
be another soul that accompanies us." 

This conversation took place, in the Indian country. I knew the In- 
dian very well, and had noticed the practice,^ not general now, on the fron- 
tiers, of tying the coffm-Hd, in burials. It is at the orifice in the b^rk 
sheeting mentioned, that the portion of food, consecrated in feasts for the 
dead, is set. It could not but happen, that the food should be eaten by the 
hystrix, wolf, or some other animal, known to prowd at night ; nor that, 
Indian superstition, ever ready to turn shght appearances of this kind to 
account, should attribute its abstraction to the spirit of the deceased. 



THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. 

AN ODJIBWA FAIRY TALE. 

WRITTEN OUT FROM THE VERBAL NARRATIVE BY THE LATE 
MRS. H. R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 

There was once a little boy, remarkable for the smallness of his stature 
He was living alone with his sister older than himself They were orphans, 
they lived in a beautiful spot on the Lake shore j liany large rocks were 

127 



128 



THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. 



scattered aiound their habitation. The boy never grew larger as he 
advanced in years. One day, in winter, he asked his sister to make him 
a»ball to play with along shore on the clear ice. She made one for him, 
but cautioned him not to go too far. — Off he went in high glee, throwing 
his ball before him, and running after it at full speed ; and he went as fast 
as his ball. At last his ball flew to a great distance: he followed it as fast 
as he could. After he had run for some time, he saw four dark substances 
on the ice straight before him. When he came up to the spot he was sur- 
prised to see four "large, tall men lying on the ice, spearing fish. When he 
went up to them, the nearest looked up and in turn was surprised to see 
such a diminutive being, and turning to his brothers, he said, " Tia! look ! 
see what a little fellow is here." After they had all looked a mo- 
ment, they resumed their position, covered their heads, intent in searching 
for fish. The boy thought to himself, they imagine me too insignificant 
for common courtesy, because they are tall and large ; I shall teach them 
notwithstanding, that I am not to be treated so hghtly. After they were 
covered up the boy saw they had each a large trout lying beside them. 
He slyly took the one nearest him, and placing his fingers in the gills, and 
tossing his ball before him, ran off at full speed. When the mas| to 
whom the fish belonged looked up, he saw his trout sliding away as if of 
itself, at a great rate — the boy being so small he was not distinguished from 
the fish. He addressed his brothers and said, " See how that tiny boy 
has stolen my fish ; what a shame it is he should do so." The boy 
reached home, and told his sister to go out and get the fish he had brought 
home. She exclaimed, " where could you have got it? I hope you have 
not stolen it." " no," he replied, " I found it on the ice." " How" per- 
sisted the sister, " could you have got it there ?" — " No matter," said the boy, 
" go and cook it." He disdained to answer her again, but thought he 
would one day show her how to appreciate him. She went to the place 
he left it, and there indeed she found a monstrous trout. She did as she 
was bid, and cooked it for that day's consumption. Next morning he went 
off again as at first. When he came near the large men, who fished every 
day, he threw his ball with such force that it rolled into the ice-hole of 
the man of whom he had stolen the day before. As he happened to raise 
himself at the time, the boy said, " Neejee, pray hand me my ball," " No 
indeed," answered the man, " I shall not," and thrust the ball under the 
ice. The boy took hold of his arm and broke it in two in a moment, and 
threw him to one side, and picked up his ball, which had bounded back 
from under the ice, and tossed it as usual before him. Outstripping it in 
speed, he got home and remained within till the next morning. The 
man whose arm he had broken hallooed out to his brothers, and told them 
his case, and deplored his fate. They hurried to their brother, and as 
loud as they could roar threatened vengeance on the morrow, knowing 



THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. 



129 



the boy's speed that they could not overtake him, and he was near^ut of 
sight ; yet he heard their threats and awaited their coming in perfect in- 
difference. The four brothers the next morning prepared to take their 
jevenge. Their old mother begged them not to go — " Better" said she " that 
one only should suffer, than that all should perish , for he must be a 
monedo, or he could not perform such feats." But her sons would not lis- 
ten ; and taking their wounded brother along, started for the boy's lodge, 
having learnt that he lived at the place of rocks. The boy's sister thought 
she heard the noise of snow-shoes on the crusted snow at a distance ad- 
vancing. She saw the large, tall men coming straight to their lodge, or 
lather cave, for they lived in a large rock. She ran in with great fear^ and 
told her brother the fact. He said, " Why do you mind them? give me 
something to eat." " How can you think of eating at such a time," she 
replied,—" Do as I request you, and be quick." She then gave him his 
dish, which was a large mis-qua-dace shell, and he commenced eating. Just 
then the men came to the door, and were about lifting the curtain placedi 
there, when the boy-man turned his dish upside-dow^n, and immediately 
the door was closed with a stone ; the men tried hard with their clubs to 
crack it ; at length they succeeded in making a slight opening. When one 
of them peeped in with one eye, the boy-man shot his arrow into his eye 
and brain, and he dropped down dead. The others, not knowing what had 
happened their brother, did the same, and all fell in like manner ; their 
curiosity was so great to see what the boy was about. So they all shared 
the same fate. After they were killed the boy-man told his sister to go 
out and see them. She opened the door, but feared they were not dead, and 
entered back again hastily, and told her fears to her brother. He went out 
and hacked them in small pieces, saying, henceforth let no man be 
larger than you are now. So men became of the present size. When 
spring came on, the boy-man said to his sister, " Make me a new set of 
arrows and bow." She obeyed, as he never did any thing himself of a na- 
ture that required manual labour, though he provided for their sustenance. 
After she made them, she again cautioned him not to shoot into the lake ; 
but regardless of all admonition, he, on purpose, shot his arrow into the 
lake, and waded' some distance till he got into deep water, and paddled 
about for his arrow, so as to attract the attention of his sister. She came 
in haste to the shore, calling him to return, but instead of minding her 
he called out, " Ma-mis-quon-je-gun-a, be-nau-wa-con-zhe-shin," that is, 
" you^ of the red fins come and swallow me." Immediately that monstrous 
fish came and swallowed him ; and seeing his sister standing on the shore 
in despair, he hallooed out to her, " Me-zush-ke-zin-ance." She wondered 
what he meant. But on reflection she thought it must be an old mockesin. 
She accordingly tied the old mockesin to a string, and fastened it to a tree. 
The fish said to the boy-man, under water, "What is that floating?" the 
boy-man said to the fish, " Go, take hold of it, swallow it as fast as you 

9 



130 THE LITTLE SPIRIT, OR BOY-MAN. 

can."«The fish darted towards the old shoe, and swallowed it. The boy- 
man fflSghed in himself, but said nothing, till the fish was fairly caught; 
be then took hold of the line and began to pull himself and fish to 
shore. The sister, who was watching, was surprised to see so large a fish ; 
and hauling it ashore she took her knife and commenced cutting it open. 
"When she heard her brother's voice inside of the fish, saying, " Make 
haste and release me from this nasty place," his sister was in such haste 
that she almost hit his head with her knife ; but succeeded in making an 
opening large enough for her brother to get out. When he was fairly out, 
he told his sister to cut up the fish and dry it, as it would last a long time 
for their sustenance, and said to her, never, never more to doubt his ability 
in any way. So ends the story. 



AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. 

STORY OP A FAMILY OP NADOWAS, OR PEOPLE OP THE SIX NATIONS OP TORONTO, 
CONSISTING OP SIX BROTHERS, THEIR YOUNGEST SISTER, AND TWO AUNTS. THEIH 
FATHER AND MOTHER HAVING DIED, THEY WERE LEPT ORPHANS, THEIR ORIGIN, 
HOWEVER, WAS PROM THE PIRST CLASS OP CHIEFTAINS IN THEIR NAT|ON. 

NARRATED FROM THE ORAL RELATION OP NABANOI, BY 
MR. GEORGE JOHNSTON. 

In the days of this story, wars, murders, and cruelty existed in the 
country now compnsmg the province of Upper Canada, or that portion 
bordering upon Lakes Simcoe. Erie, and Ontario, which was claimed and 
belonged to the powerful tribe of the eight nations of the Nawtoways. 
The young men had, on a day, started for a hunting excursion: in the 
evening five only of the brothers returned, one was missing. Upon search 
being made the body was found, and it appeared evident that he had been 
killed : this gave a great blow to the family, but particularly causing great 
affliction to the sister, who was the youngest of the familjr. She mourned 
and lamented her brother's death, and she wept incessantly. 

The ensuing year another was killed, and so on till four were killed. 
The remaining two brothers did all they could to afford consolation to 
their pining sister, but she would not be consoled : they did all they could 
to divert her mind from so much mourning, but all their endeavours 
proved ineffectual : she scarcely took any food, and what she ate was 
hardly sufficient to sustain nature. The tv^/o brothers said that they 
would go hunting, which they did from day to day. They would bring 



AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. 



ducks and birds of every description to their sister, in order to tempt her 
appetite, but she persisted in refusing nourishment, or taking very little. 
At the exp'ration of the year when the fourth brother had been killed, 
the two young men set out upon the chase ; one of them returned in the 
evening, the other was missing, and found killed in like manner as the 
others had been. This again augmented the afflictions of the young girl * 
she had been very delicate, but was now reduced to a mere skeleton. At 
the expiration of the year the only and last of her brothers, taking pity 
upon his pining sister, said to her that he would go and kill her some fresh 
venison, to entice her to eat. He started early in the morning, and his sister 
would go out from time to time, in the course of the day, to see if her bro- 
ther was returning. Night set in, and no indications of his coming — she 
sat up all night, exhibiting fear and apprehension bordering upon despair — 
day light appeared, and he did not come — search was made, and he was 
finally found killed, like all the other brothers. After this event the girl be- 
came perfectly disconsolate, hardly tasting food, and would wander in the 
woods the whole day, returning at nights. One of her aunts had the care 
of her at this time. One day in one of her rambles she did not return ; 
her aunt became very anxious, and searched for her, and continued her 
search daily. On the tenth day, the aunt in her search lost her way and 
was bewildered, and finally was benighted. While lying down, worn with 
fatigue, she thought she heard the voice of some one speaking: she got up, 
and directing her course to the spot, she came upon a small lodge made 
of bushes, and in it lay her niece, with her face to the ground. She pre- 
vailed upon her to return home. Before reaching their lodge the girl stopt, 
and her aunt built her a small lodge, and she resided in it. Here her 
aunt would attend upon her daily. 

One day as she lay alone in her little lodge, a person appeared to her 
from on high : he had on white raiment that was extremely pure, clean and 
white : he did not touch the earth, but remained at some distance from it. 
He spoke to her in a mild tone and said. Daughter, why do you remain 
here mourning ? I have come to console you, and you must arise, and I 
will give you all the land, and deliver into your hands the persons who 
have killed your brothers. All things living and created are mine, I give 
and take away. Now therefore arise, slay and eat of my dog that lays 
there. You will go to your village and firstly tell your relatives and na- 
tion of this vision, and you must act conformably to my word and to the 
mind I'll give you, and your enemies will I put into your hands. I will 
be with you again. 

After this, he ascended on high. When the girl looked to the place 
where the heavenly being pointed, she saw a bear. She arose and went 
home, and mentioned to her relatives the vision she had seen, and made 
a request that the people might be assembled to partake of her feast. She 
directed her relations to the spot where the bear was to be found ; it was 



132 



AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. 



killed and brought to the village, and singed upon a fire, and the feast 
was made, and the nature of the vision explained. Preparations were im- 
mediately set on foot, messengers were sent to each tribe of the six nations, 
and an invitation given to them, to come upon a given day to the village 
of Toronto. Messengers were also sent all along the north coast of lake 
Huron to Bawiting, inviting the Indians to form an alliance and fight 
against the enemies of the young girl who had lost so many brothers. 

In the midst of the Nadowas, there lived two chieftains, twin brothers. 
They were Nadowas also of the Bear tribe, perfect de\dls in disposition, 
cruel and tyrannical. They were at the head of two nations of the Na- 
dowas, reigning together, keeping the other nations in great fear and awe, 
and enslaving them ; particularly the Indians of the Deer totem, who re- 
sided in one portion of their great village. Indians in connection with 
the Chippewas were also kept in bondage by the two tyrants, whose names- 
were Aingodon and Naywadaha. When the Chippewas received the 
young girl's messengers, they Vv^ere told that they must rescue their re- 
latives, and secretly apprize them of their intention, and the great 
calamity that would befall Aingodon and Naywadaha's villages and towns. 
Many therefore made their escape ; but one remained with his family, 
sending an excuse for not obeying the summons, as he had a great quan- 
tity of corn laid up, and that he must attend to his crops. The Indians all 
along the north shore of lake Huron and of Bawiting, embarked to join 
the general and common cause; they passed through the lakes, and 
reached Toronto late in the fall. In the beginning of the winter the assem- 
bled allies marched, headed by the young girl. She passed through lake 
Simcoe, and the line covered the whole lake, cracking the ice as they 
marched over it. They encamped at the head of the lake. Here the young 
girl produced a garnished bag, and she hung it up, and told the assembled 
multitude that she would make chingodam ; and after this she sent hunters 
out directing them to bring in eighteen bears, and before the sun had 
risen high the bears were all brought in, and they were singed, and the 
feast of sacrifice offered. At this place the person from on high appeared 
to the girl in presence of the assembled multitude, and he stretched 
forth his hand and shook hands with her only. He here directed her to 
send secret messengers into the land, to warn the Indians who had the 
deer totem lo put out their totems on poles before their lodge door, in 
order that they might be known and saved from the approaching destruc- 
tion ; and they were enjoined not to go out of their lodges, neither man, 
woman, or child ; if they did so they would be surely consumed and de- 
stroyed ; and the person on high said — Do not approach nigh the open plain 
until the rising sun, you will then see destruction come upon your 
enemies, and they will be delivered into your hands. 

The messengers were sent to the Deer Totems, and they entered the 
town at night, and communicated their message to them. After this all 



AINGODON AND NAYWADAHA. 



133 



the Indians bearing that mark were informed of the approaching calamity, 
and they instantly made preparations, setting out poles before their lodge 
doors, and attaching deer skins to the poles, as marks to escape the ven- 
geance that was to come upon Aingodon and Nawadaha, and their tribes. 
The next morning at daylight the Aingodons and Nawadahas rose, and 
seeing the poles and deer skins planted before the doors of the lodges, 
said m derision, that their friends, the Deer Totems, had, or must have had, 
bad dreams, thus to set their totems on poles. The Indians of the deer totems 
remained quiet and silent, and they did not venture out of their lodges. The 
young girl was nigh the skirts of the wood with her host, bordering upon 
the plain ; and just as the sun rose she marched, and as she and her allied 
forces neared the village of the twin tyrants, it became a flame of fire, de- 
stroying all its inhabitants. The Deer Totems escaped. Aingodon and Na- 
wadaha were not consumed. The allied Indians drew their bows and shot 
their arrows at them, but they bounded off, and the blows inflicted upon 
them were of no avail, until the young girl came up and subdued them, 
and took them alive, and made them prisoners. 

The whole of Aingodon's and Nawadaha's towns and villages were 
destroj'-ed in the same way ; and the land was in possession of the young- 
girl and the six remaining tribes of the Nadowas. After this signal ven- 
geance was taken the young girl returned with her host, and again en- 
camped at the head of lake Simcoe, at her former encamping place ; and 
the two tyrants were asked, what was their object for making chingodam, 
and what weight could it have? They said, in answer, that their imple- 
ments for war, were war axes, and if permitted they would make chingodam, 
and on doing so they killed each two men. They were bound immediately, 
and their flesh was cut ofl' from their bodies in slices. One of them was 
dissected, and upon examination it was discovered that he had no liver, 
and his heart was small, and composed of hard flint stone. There are 
marks upon a perpendicular ledge of rocks at the narrows, or head of lake 
Simcoe, visible to this day, representing two bound persons, who are re- 
cognized by the Indians of this generation as the two tyrants, or twin 
brothers, Aingodon and Nawadaha. One of the tyrants was kept bound, 
until the time the French discovered and possessed the Canadas, and he 
was taken to Quebec, After this the young girl was taken away by the 
god of light. 

GEO. JOHNSTON. 

Sault Ste. Marie, May I2th, 1838. 



The Indian warriors of the plains west of the sources of the Mississippi, 
chew a bitter root, before going into battle, which they suppose impart? 
courage, and renders them insensible to pain. It is called zhigowak. 



SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF 

NOTED MD lEI AID ¥OMEI 

WHO HAYE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT. 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 

This individual has indelibly interwoven his name with the history of 
the Chippewa nation, during the latter half of the 1 8th century. His an- 
cestors had, from the earliest times, held the principal chieftainship in lake 
Superior. His father, Ma-mongazida, was the ruling chief during the 
war of the conquest of the Canadas by the British crown. In common 
with his tribe and the northern nations generally, he was the fast friend 
of the French government, and was present with his warriors, under Gen. 
Montcalm, at the loss of Quebec, in 1759. He carried a short speech from 
that celebrated officer to his people in the north, which is said to have 
been verbally delivered a short time before he went to the field. 

The period of the fall of the French power in the Canadas, is one of 
the most marked events in Indian reminiscence throughout all northwest 
America. They refer to the days of French supremacy as a kind of 
golden era, when all things in their affairs were better than they now are ; 
and I have heard them lament over the change as one which was 
in every respect detrimental to their power and happiness. No European 
nation, it is evident from these allusions, ever pleased them as well. The 
French character and manners adapted themselves admirably to the exist- 
ing customs of forest life. The common people, who went up into the in- 
terior to trade, fell in with their customs with a degree of plasticity and 
an air of gaiety and full assent, which no other foreigners have, at least to 
the same extent, shown. These Couriers du Bois had not much to boast 
of on the score of rigid morals themselves. They had nearly as much su- 
perstition as the wildest Indians. They were in fact, at least nine-tenths 
of them, quite as illiterate. Very many of them were far inferior in their 
mental structure and capacity to the bold, eloquent, and well formed and 
athletic northern chiefs and hunters. They respected their religious and 
festive ceremonies. They never, as a chief once told me, laughed at 
them. They met their old friends on their annual returns from Montreal, 
with a kiss, They took the daughters of the red men for wives, and 
reared large families, who thus constituted a strong bond of union between 
th» two races, which remains unbroken at this day. 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



135 



This is the true secret of the strenuous efforts made by the nortnern and 
western Indians to sustain the French power, when it was menaced in the 
war of 1744, by the fleets and armies of Great Britain. They rallied 
freely to their aid at Detroit, Vincennes, the present sites of Pittsburg and 
Erie, at Fort Niagara, Montreal, and Gluebec, and they hovered with m- 
furiated zeal around the outskirts of the northern and western settlements, 
during the many and sanguinary wars carried on between the English 
and French. And when the French were beaten they still adhered 
to their cause, and their chiefs stimulated the French local commanders to 
continue and renew the contest, even after the fall of Niagara and Gluebec, 
with a heroic consistency of purpose, which reflects credit upon their fore- 
sight, bravery, and constancy. We hope in a future number to bring for- 
ward a sketch of the man who put himself at the head of this latter effort, 
who declared he would drive the Saxon race into the sea, who beseio-ed 
twelve and took nine of the western stockaded forts, and who for four years 
and upwards, maintained the war, after the French had struck their colours 
and ceded the country. We refer to the great Algic leader, Pontiac. 

At present our attention is called to a cotemporary chief, of equal per- 
sonal bravery and conduct, certainly, but who lived and exercised his au- 
thority at a more remote point, and had not the same masses and means 
at his command. This point, so long hid in the great forests of the north, 
and which, indeed, has been but lately revealed in our positive geography, 
is the AP.EA OF Lake Superior. It is here that we find the Indian tradition 
to be rife with the name of Wabojeeg and his wars, and his cotemporaries. 
It was one of the direct consequences of so remote a position, that it with- 
drew his attention more from the actual conflicts between the French and 
English, and fixed them upon his western and southern frontiers, which 
were menaced and invaded by the numerous bands of the Dacotahs, and 
by the perfidious kinsmen of his nation, the Outagamies and Saucs. He 
came into active life, too, as a prominent war leader, at the precise era 
when the Canadas had fallen into the British power, and by engaging 
zealously in the defence of the borders of his nation west, he allowed time 
to mitigate and adjust those feelings and attachments which, so far as pub- 
lic policy was concerned, must be considered to have moulded the Indian 
mind to a compliance with, and a submission to, the British authority. 
Wabojeeg was, emphatically, the defender of the Chippewa domain against 
the efforts of other branches of the Red Race. He did not, therefore, lead 
his people to fight, as his father, Ma-mongazida, and nearly all the great 
Indian war captains had, to enable one type of the foreign race to triumph 
over another, but raised his parties and led them forth to maintain his tribal 
supremacy. He may be contemplated, therefore, as having had a more 
patriotic object for his achievement. 

Lake Superior, at the time of our earliest acquaintance with the region, 
was occupied, as it is at this day, by the Chippewa race. The chief seat 



136 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



of their power appeared to be neair the southwestern extremity of the lake, 
at Chagoimegon, where fathers Marquette and Alloez found their way, 
and established a mission, so early as 1668. Another of their principal, 
and probably more ancient seats, was at the great rapids on the outlet of 
that lake, which they named the Sault de Ste. Marie. It was in allusion 
to their residence here that they called this tribe Saulteur, that is to say, 
people of the leap or rapid. 

Indian tradition makes the Chippewas one of the chief, certainly by far 
the most numerous and widely spread, of the Algonquin stock proper. It 
represents them to have migrated from the east to the west. On reaching 
the vicinity of Michilimackinac, they separated at a comparatively mo- 
derate era into three tribes, calling themselves, respectively, Odjibwas, 
Odawas, and Podawadumees. What their name was before this era, i& 
not known. It is manifest that the term Odjibwa is not a very ancient one, 
for it does not occur in the earliest authors. They were probably of the 
Nipercinean or true Algonquin stock, and had taken the route of the Utawas 
river, from the St. Lawrence valley into lake Huron. The term itself is 
clearly from Bwa, a voice ; and its prefix in Odji, was probably designed 
to mark a peculiar intonation which the muscles are, as it were, gathered 
up, to denote. 

Whatever be the facts of their origin, they had taken the route up the 
straits of St. Mary into lake Superior, both sides of which, and far beyond, 
they occupied at the era of the French discovery. It is evident that their 
course in this direction must have been aggressive. They were advanc- 
ing towards the west and northwest. The tribe known as Kenistenos, 
had passed through the Lake of the Woods, through the great lake Nipe- 
sing, and as far as the heads of the Saskatchewine and the portage of the 
Missinipi of Hudson's bay. The warlike band of Leech Lake, called 
Mukundwas, had spread themselves over the entire sources of the Missis- 
sippi and extended their hunting excursions west to Red River, where they 
came into contact with the Assinaboines, or Stone Sioux. The central 
power, at this era, still remained at Chagoimegon, on Superior, where in- 
deed, the force of early tradition asserts there was maintained something 
like a frame of both civil and ecclesiastical polity and government. 

It is said in the traditions related to me by the Chippewas, that the Ou- 
tagamies, or Foxes, had preceded them into that particular section of coun- 
try which extends in a general course from the head of Fox River, of Green 
Bay, towards the Falls of St. Anthony, reaching in some points well nigh 
to the borders of lake Superior. They are remembered to have occupied 
the interior wild rice lakes, which lie at the sources of the Wisconsin, the 
Ontonagon, the Chippewa, and the St. Croix rivers. They were associated 
with the Saucs, who had ascended the Mississippi some distance above the 
Falls of St. Anthony, where they lived on friendly terms with the Dacotahs 
or Sioux. This friendship extended also to the Outagamies, and it was 



WABOJEEGj OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



137 



the means of preserving a good understanding between the Dacotahs and 
Chippewas. 

The Fox tribe is closely affiliated with the Chippewas. They call 
each other brothers. They are of the same general origin and speak the 
same general language, the chief difference in sound being that the Foxes 
use the letter 1, where the Odjibwas employ an n. The particular cause of i 
their disagreement is not known. They are said by the Chippewas to 
have been unfaithful and treacherous. Individual quarrels and trespasses 
on their hunting grounds led to murders, and in the end to a war, in which 
the Menomonees and the French united, and they were thus driven from 
the rice lakes and away from the Fox and upper Wisconsin. To main- 
tain their position they formed an alliance with the Sioux, and fought by 
their side. 

It was in this contest that Wabojeeg first distinguished himself, and vin- 
dicated by his bravery and address the former reputation of his family, 
and laid anew the foundations of his northern chieftaindom. Having 
heard allusions made to this person on my first entrance into that region, 
many years ago, I made particular enquiries, and found living a sister, 
an old white-headed woman, and a son and daughter, about the age of 
middle life. From these sources I gleaned the following facts. He was 
born, as nearly as I could compute the time, about 1747. By a singular 
and romantic incident his father, Ma-mongazida, was a half-brother of the 
father of Wabashaw, a celebrated Sioux chief, who but a few years ago 
died at his village on the upper Mississippi. The connexion happened in 
this way. 

While the Sioux and Chippewas were living in amity near each other, 
and frequently met and feasted each other on their hunting grounds and 
at their villages, a Sioux chief, of distinction, admired and married a Chip- 
pewa girl, by whom he had two sons. When the war between these two 
nations broke out, those persons of the hostile tribes who had married 
Chippewa wives, and were living in the Chippewa country, withdrew, 
some taking their wives along and others separating from them. Among 
the latter was the Sioux chief He remained a short time after hostilities 
commenced, but finding his position demanded it, he was compelled, with 
great reluctance, to leave his wife behind, as she could not, with safety, 
have accompanied him into the Sioux territories. As the blood of the 
Sioux flowed in the veins of her two sons, neither was it safe for her to 
leave them among the Chippewas. They were, however, by mutual 
agreement, allowed to return with the father. The eldest of these sons 
became the father of Wabashaw. 

The mother thus divorced by the mutual consent of all parties, re- 
mained inconsolable for some time. She was still young and handsome, 
and after a few years, became the wife of a young Chippewa chief of 
Chagoimegon, of the honoured totem of the Addick or reindeer. Her 



138 



WABOJEEGj OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



first child by this second marriage, was Ma Mongazida, the father of 
Wabojeeg. In this manner, a connexion existed between two families, 
of separate hostile nations, each of which distinguished itself, for bravery 
and skill in war and council. It has already been stated that Ma Monga- 
zida, was present, on the side of the French, in the great action in which 
both Montcalm and Wolf fell, and he continued to exercise the chieftain- 
snip till his death, when his second son succeeded him. 

It was one of the consequences of the hostility of the Indians to the 
English rule, that many of the remote tribes were left, for a time, without 
traders to supply their wants. This was the case, tradition asserts, with 
Chagoiraegon, which, for two years after the taking of old Mackinac, was 
left without a trader. To remonstrate against this. Ma Mongazida visited 
Sir William Johnson, the superintendant general of Indian affairs, by 
whom he was well received, and presented with a broad wampum belt and 
gorget. This act laid the foundation of a lasting peace between the Chip- 
pewas and the English. The belt, it is added, was of blue wampum, 
with figures of white. And when Wabojeeg came to the chieftainship, he 
took from it the wampum employed by him to muster his waiparties. 

In making traditionary enquiries I have found that the Indian narra- 
» tors were careful to preserve and note any fact, in the early lives of their 
distinguished men, wfiich appeared to prefigure their future eminence, or 
had any thing of the wonderful or premonitory, in its character. The 
following incident of this sort, was noticed respecting this chief Ma 
Mongazida generally went to make his fall hunts on the middle grounds 
towards the Sioux territory, taking with him all his near relatives, amount- 
ing usually to twenty persons, exclusive of children. Early one morning 
while the young men were preparing for the chase, they were startled by 
the report of several shots, directed towards the lodge. As they had 
thought themselves in security, the first emotion was surprise, and they 
had scarcely time to fly to their arms, when another volley was fired, 
which wounded one man in the thigh, and killed a dog. Ma Mongazida 
immediately sallied out with his young men, and pronouncing his name 
aloud in the Sioux language, demanded if Wabasha or his brother, were 
among the assailants. The firing instantly ceased — a pause ensued, when 
a tall figure, in a war dress, with a profusion of feathers upon his head, 
stepped forward and presented his hand. It was the elder Wabasha, his 
half brother. The Sioux peaceably followed their leader into the lodge, 
upon which they had, the moment before, directed their shots. At the in- 
stant the Sioux chief entered, it was necessary to stoop a little, in passing 
the door. In the act of stooping, he received a blow from a war- 
club wielded by a small boy, who had posted himself there for the pur- 
pose. It was the young Wabojeeg. Wabasha, pleased with this early 
indication of courage, took the little lad in his arms, caressed him, and 



WABOJEEG, OR T^E WHITE FISHER. 



139 



pronounced that he would become a brave man, and prove an inveterate 
enemy of the Sioux. 

The border warfare in which the father of the infant warrior was con- 
stantly engaged, early initiated him in the arts and ceremonies pertaining 
to war. With the eager interest and love of novelty of the young, he lis- 
tened to their war songs and war stories, and longed for the time when 
he would be old enough to join these parties, and also make himself a 
name among warriors. While quite a youth he volunteered to go out 
with a party, and soon gave convincing proofs of his courage. He also 
early learned the arts of hunting the deer, the bear, the moose, and all the 
smaller animals common to the country ; and in these pursuits, he took 
the ordinary lessons of Indian young men, in abstinence, suffering, dan- 
ger and endurance of fatigue. In this manner his nerves were knit and 
formed for activity, and his mind stored with those lessons of caution 
which are the result of local experience in the forest. He possessed a tall 
and commanding person, with a full black piercing eye, and the usual 
features of his countrymen. He had a clear and full toned voice, and 
spoke his native language with grace and fluency. To these attractions, 
he united an early reputation for bravery and skill in the chase, and at 
the age of twenty-two, he was already a war leader. 

Expeditions of one Indian tribe against another, require the utmost 
caution, skill, and secrecy. There are a hundred things to give informa- 
tion to such a party, or influence its action, which are unknown to civilized 
nations. The breaking of a twig, the slightest impression of a foot print, 
and other like circumstances, determine a halt, a retreat, or an advance. 
The most scrupulous attention is also paid to the signs of the heavens, the 
flight of birds, and above ail, to the dreams and predictions of the jossakeed, 
priest, or prophet, who accompanies them, and who is entrusted with the 
sacred sack. The theory upon which all these parties are conducted, is 
secrecy and stratagem : to steal upon the enemy unawares ; to lay in am- 
bush, or decoy ; to kill and to avoid as much as possible the hazard of 
being killed. An intimate geographical knowledge of the country, is also 
required by a successful war leader, and such a man piques himself, not 
only on knowing every prominent stream, hill, valley, wood, or rock, but 
the particular productions, animal, and vegetable, of the scene of opera- 
tions. When it is considered that this species of knowledge, shrewdness 
and sagacity, is possessed on both sides, and that the nations at war watch 
each other, as a lynx for its prey, it may be conceived, that many of these 
border war parties are either light skirmishes, sudden on-rushes, or utter 
failures. It is seldom that a close, well contested, long continued hard 
battle is fought. To kill a few men, tear ofl" their scalps in haste, and 
retreat with these trophies, is a brave and honourable trait with them, and 
may be boasted of, in their triumphal dances and warlike festivities. 

To glean the details of these movements, would be to acquire the 



140 WABOJEEGj OR THE WHITE FISHER. 

modern history of the tribe, which induced me to direct my enquiries to 
the subject ; but the lapse of even forty or fifty years, had shorn tradition 
of most of these details, and often left the memory of resiilts only. The 
Chippewas told me, that this chief had led them seven times to successful 
battle against the Sioux and the .Outagamies, and that he had been 
wounded thrice — once in the thigh, once in the right shoulder, and a 
third time in the side and breast, being a glancing shot. His war parties 
consisted either of volunteers who had joined his standard at the war 
dance, or of auxiliaries, who had accepted his messages of wampum and 
tobacco, and come forward in a body, to the appointed place of rendezvous. 
These parties varied greatly in number ; his first party consisted of but 
forty men, his greatest and most renowned, of three hundred, who were 
mustered from the villages on the shores of the lake, as far east as St. 
Mary's falls. 

It is to the incidents of this last expedition, which had an im.portant in- 
fluence on the progress of the war, that we may devote a few moments. 
The place of rendezvous was La Pointe Chagomiegon, or as it is called 
in modern days, La Pointe of Lake Superior. The scene of the conflict, 
which was a long and bloody one, was the falls of the St. Croix. The 
two places are distant about two hundred and fift}?" miles, by the most di- 
rect route. This area embraces the summit land between Lake Superior 
and the upper Mississippi. The streams flowing each way interlock, 
which enables the natives to ascend them in their light canoes, and after 
carrying the latter over the portages, to descend on the opposite side. On 
this occasion Wabojeeg and his partizan army, ascended the Muskigo, or 
Mauvais river, to its connecting portage with the Namakagon branch of the 
St. Croix. On crossing the summit, they embarked in their small and 
light war canoes on their descent westward. This portion of the route 
was passed with the utmost caution. They were now rapidly approach- 
ing the enemy's borders, and every sign was regarded with deep attention. 
They were seven days from the time they first reached the waters of the 
St. Croix, until they found the enemy. They went but a short distance 
each day, and encamped. On the evening of the seventlV day, the scouts 
discovered a large body of Sioux and Outagamies encamped on the lower 
side of the portage of the great falls of the St. Croix. The discovery w^as 
a surprise on both sides. The advance of the Chippewas had landed at 
the upper end of the portage, intending to encamp there. The Sioux 
and their allies had just preceded them, from the lower part of the stream 
with the same object. The Foxes or Outagamies immediately fired, and 
a battle ensued. It is a spot indeed, from which a retreat either way is 
impracticable, in the face of an enemy. It is a mere neck of rugged rock. 
The river forces a passage through this dark and solid barrier. It is 
equally rapid and dangerous for canoes above and below. It cannot be 
crossed direct After the firing began Wabojeeg landed and brought up 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 14 J 

his men. He directed a part of them to extend themselves in the wood 
around the small neck, or peninsula, of the portage, whence alone escape 
was possible. Both parties fought with bravery ; the Foxes with despera- 
tion. But they were outnumbered, overpowered, and defeated. Some 
attempted to descend the rapids, and were lost. A few only escaped. 
But the Chippewas paid dearly for their victory. Wabojeeg was slightly 
wounded in the breast : his brother was killed. Many brave warriors fell. 
It was a most sanguinary scene. The tradition of this battle is one of the 
most prominent and wide spread of the events of their modern history. 
I have conversed with more than one chief, who dated his first military 
honours in youth, to this scene. It put an end to their feud with the 
Foxes, who retired from the intermediate rice lakes, and fled down the 
Wisconsin. It raised the name of the Chippewa leader, to the acme of 
his renown among his people : but Wabojeeg, as humane as he was 
brave, grieved over the loss of his people who had falfen in the action. 
This feeling was expressed touchingly and characteristically, in a war song, 
which he uttered after this victory which has been preserved by the 
late Mr. Johnston of St. Mary's, in the following stanzas. 

On that day when our heroes lay low — lay low, 

On that day when our heroes lay low, 
I fought by their side, and thought ere I died, 

Just vengeance to take on the foe. 

Just vengeance to take on the foe. 

On that day, when our chieftains lay dead— lay dead, 

On tha* day when our chieftains lay dead, 
I foiignt hand to hand, at the head of my band, 

And here, on my breast, have 1 bled, 

And here, on my breast, have I bled. 

Our chiefs shall return no more — no more. 

Our chiefs shall return no more. 
Nor their brothers of war, who can show scar for scar, 

Like women their fates shall deplore — deplore, 

Like women their fate shall deplore. 

Five winters in hunting we'll spend — we'll spend, 

Five winters in hunting we'll spend. 
Till our youth, grown to men, we'll to war lead again. 

And our days, like our fathers, we'll end. 

And our days, like our fathers, we'll end. 

It is the custom of these tribes to go to war in the spring and 
summer, which a re, not only comparatively seasons of leisure with them, 



142 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



but it is at these seasons that they are concealed and protected by the 
foliage of the forest, and can approach the enemy unseen. At these annual 
returns of warmth and vegetation, they also engage in festivities and dances, 
during which the events and exploits of past years are sang and recited : 
and while they derive fresh courage and stimulus to renewed exertions, 
the young, who are listeners, learn to emulate their fathers, and take their 
earliest lessons in the art of war. Nothing is do'ne in the summer months 
in the way of hunting. The small furred animals are changing their 
pelt, which is out of season. The doe retires with her fawns, from the 
plains and open grounds, into thick woods. It is the general season of 
reproduction, and the red man for a time, intermits his war on the 
animal creation, to resume it against man. 

As the autumn approaches, he prepares for his fall hunts, by retiring 
from the outskirts of the settlements, and from the open lakes, shores, and 
streams, which have been the scenes of his summer festivities ; and pro- 
ceeds, after a short preparatory hunt, to his wintering grounds. This 
round of hunting, and of festivity and war, fills up the year ; all the tribes 
conform in these general customs. There are no war parties raised in 
the winter. This season is exclusively devoted to securing the means of 
their subsistence and clothing, by seeking the valuable skins, which are 
to purchase their clothing and their ammunition, traps and arms. 

The hunting grounds of the chief, whose life we are considering, ex- 
tended along the southern shores of Lake Superior from the Montreal 
River, to the inlet of the Misacoda, or Burntwood River of Fond du Laa 
If he ascended the one. he usually made the wide circuit indicated, and 
came out at the other. He often penetrated by a central route up the 
Maskigo. This is a region still abounding, but less so than formerly, in the 
bear, moose, beaver, otter, martin, and muskrat. Among the smaller 
animals are also to be noticed the mink, lynx, hare, porcupine, and par- 
tridge, and towards its southern and western limits, the Virginia deer. In 
this ample area, the La Pointe, or Chagoimegon Indians hunted. It is a rule 
of the chase, that each hunter has a portion of the country assigned to him, 
on which he alone may hunt ; and there are conventional laws which de- 
cide all questions of right and priority in starting and killing game. In 
th6se questions, the chief exercises a proper authority, and it is thus in the 
power of one of these forest governors and magistrates, where they happen 
to be men of sound sense, judgment and manly independence, to make 
themselves fek and known, and to become true benefactors to their tribes. 
And such chiefs create an impression upon their followers, and leave a 
reputation behind them, which is of more value than their achievements 
in war. 

Wabojeeg excelled in both characters ; he was equally popular as a 
civil ruler and a war chief ; and while he administered justice to his peo- 
ple, he was an expert hunter, and made due and ample provision for hk 



WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 



143 



family. He usually gleaned, in a season, by his traps and carbine, four 
packs of mixed furs, the avails of which were ample to provide clothing 
for all the members of his lodge circle, as well as to renew his supply of 
ammunition and other essential articles. 

On one occasion, he had a singular contest with a moose. He had 
gone out, one morning early, to set martin traps. He had set about forty, 
and was returning to his lodge, when he unexpectedly encountered a 
large moose, in his path, which manifested a disposition to attack him. 
Being unarmed, and having nothing but a knife and small hatchet, 
which he had carried to make his traps, he tried to avoid it. But the ani- 
mal came towards him in a furious manner. He took sheker behind a 
tree, shifting his position from tree to tree, retreating. At length, as he 
fled, he picked up a pole, and quickly untying his moccasin strings, he 
bound his knife to the end of the pole. He then placed himself in a 
favourable position, behind a tree, and when the moose came up, stabbed 
him several times in the throat and breast. At last, the animal, exhausted 
with the loss of blood, fell. He then dispatched him, and cut out his 
tongue to carry home to his lodge as a trophy of victory. When they 
went back to the spot, for the carcass, they found the snow trampled 
down in a wide circle, and copiously sprinkled with blood, which gave it 
the appearance of a battle-field. It proved to be a male of uncommon 
size. 

The domestic history of a native chief can seldom be obtained. In the 
present instance, the facts that follow, may be regarded with interest, as 
having been obtained from residents of Chagoimegon, or from his descen- 
dants. He did not take a wife till about the age of thirty, and he then 
married a widow, by whom he had one son. He had obtained early 
notoriety as a warrior, which perhaps absorbed his attention. What 
causes there were to render this union unsatisfactory, or whether there 
were any. is not known ; but after the lapse of two years, he mar- 
ried a girl of fourteen, of the totem of the bear, by whom he had a family 
of six children. He is represented as of a temper and manners affec- 
tionate and forbearing. He evinced thoughtfulness and diligence in the 
management of his affairs, and the order and disposition of his lodge. 
When the hunting season was over, he employed his leisure moments in 
adding to the comforts of his lodge. His lodge was of an oblong shape, 
ten fathoms long, and made by setting two rows of posts firmly in the 
ground, and sheathing the sides and roof with the smooth bark of the 
birch. From the centre rose a post crowned with the carved figure of 
an owl, which he had probably selected as a bird of good omen, for it was 
neither his own nor his wife's totem. This figure was so placed, 
that it turned with the wind, and answered the purpose of a weather- 
cock. 

In person Wabojeeg was tall, being six feet six inches, erect in carriage. 



144 WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER. 

and of slender make. He possessed a commanding countenance, united 
to ease and dignity of manners. He was a ready and fluent speaker, 
and conducted personally the negotiations with the Fox and Sioux nations. 
It was perhaps twenty years after the battle on the St. Croix, which es- 
tablished the Chippewa boundary in that quarter, and while his children 
were still young, that there came to his village, in the capacity of a trader, 
a young gentleman of a respectable family in the north of Ireland, who 
formed an exalted notion of his character, bearing, and warlike exploits. 
This visit, and his consequent residence on the lake, during the winter, 
became an important era to the chief, and has linked his name and me- 
mory with numerous persons in civilized life. Mr. Johnston asked the 
northern chief for his youngest daughter. Englishman, he replied, my 
daughter is yet young, and you cannot take her as white men have too often 
taken our daughters. It will be time enough to think of complying with 
your request, when you return again to this lake in the summer. My 
daughter is my favourite child, and I cannot part with her, unless you 
will promise to acknowledge her by such ceremonies as white men use. 
You must ever keep her, and never forsake her. On this basis a union 
was formed, a union it may be said, between the Erse and Algonquin 
races — and it was faithfully adhered to, till his death, a period of thirty- 
seven years. 

Wabojeeg had impaired his health in the numerous war parties which 
he conducted across the wide summit which separated his hunting grounds 
from the Mississippi valley. A slender frame, under a life of incessant 
exertion, brought on a premature decay. Consumption revealed itself at 
a comparatively early age, and he fell before this insidious disease, in a 
few years, at the early age of about forty-five. He died in 1793 at his 
native village of Chagoimegon. 

The incident which has been named, did not fail to make the forest 
chieftain acquainted with the leading truth of Christianity, in the revela- 
tion it makes of a saviour for all races. On the contrary, it is a truth 
which was brought to his knowledge and explained. It is, of course, not 
known with what particular effects. As he saw his end approaching, he 
requested that his body might not be buried out of sight, but placed, ac- 
cording to a custom prevalent in the remoter bands of this tribe, on a form 
supported by posts, or a scaffold. This trait is, perhaps, natural to the 
hunter state. 

My friends when my spirit is fled — is fled 

My friends when my spirit is fled, 
Ah, put me not bound, in the dark and cold ground, 
Where light shall no longer be shed — be shed, 
Where day-light no more shall be shed. 



"WABOJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER, 



145 



But lay me up scaffolded high — all high, 

Chiefs lay me up scaffolded high, 
Where my tribe shall still say, as they point to my clay, 

He ne'er from the foe sought to fly — to fly, 

He ne'er from the foe sought to fly. 

And children, who play on the shore — the shore, 

And children who play on the shore, 
As the war dance they beat, my name shall repeat, 

And the fate of their chieftan deplore — deplore, 

And the fate of their chieftain deplore. 



MODE OF WRITING AN INDIAN LANGUAGE.. 

The rules of utterance of these tribes, after all that has been said and 
written on the subject, are very simple, and determine the orthography, so 
far, at least, as relates to distinctions for the long and short vowels. If, in 
writing Indian, the syllables be separated by hyphens, there need be no 
uncertainty respecting their sounds, and we shall be saved a world of 
somewhat over nice disquisition. A vovv-el preceded by a consonant, is 
always long, a vowel followed by a consonant is always short. A vowel 
between two consonants, is short. A vowel standing by itself is always 
full or long. A few examples of well known words will denote this. 

On ta' ri o. Wa bash. 

Ni ag' ar a. Pe 6 ri a. 

O we' go. Ti con de ro ga. 

Ti 6 ga. Mis siss ip pi. 

Os we go. O nei da. 

I'-o-wa. Al ab a ma 

Wis con' sin. O tis' co. 

Chi ca go. Or e gon. 

Write the words by whatever system of orthography you will, French, 
Enghsh, or German, and the vowel sounds will vindicate this distinciion. 
If diphthongs have been used, for simple vowels, through early mistake or 
redundancy, the rule is the same. If they appear as proper diphthongs, they 
follow the rule of diphthongs. This principal of utterance appears to be a 
general and fixed law in the Indian languages as respects the sounds - 
of e, i, 0, u, a-.id the two chief sounds of a, 1 and 3 of Walker's Key. As 
the letter a '.las four distinct sounds, as in English, the chief discrepancies, 
seen abov^j, will appear in the use of this letter. 



10 



SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OP 

■ lOTED RED MEI AID ¥OMEI, 

WHO HAVE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT. 
BRANT, RED JACKET, UNCAS, MIONTONIMO. ) 

A NOTICE OF THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE LATE COL. WILLIAM L. STONE, PREPARED FOR THK 
DEMOCRATIC REVIEW 1843. \ 

The Egyptians embalmed their dead in myrrh and spices, but the 
blessed art of printing has given us a surer and less revolting method of 
preserving and transmitting to posterity, all that is truly valuable in the 
plaudits of virtue, worth, and honor. Books thus become a more perma- 
nent memorial than marble, and by their diffusion scatter those lessons 
among -all mankind, which the age of mounds and hieroglyphics, stone 
and papyrus, had confined to the tablet of a shaft, or the dark recesses of 
a tomb or a pyramid. It is never to be forgotten, that in the development 
of this new phasis in the history of the human race, it was printing that 
first lit the lamp of truth, and has driven on the experiment, till the boun- 
daries of letters have well nigh become co-extensive with the world. If 
we do not widely err, there is no part of the globe, where books of all dc' 
scriptions have become so cheap and abundant as they are at this time in 
the United States, and, laying aside all other considerations, we may find 
a propf of the position stated in the fact, that our vernacular literature is no 
longer confined to the production of school books, the annals of law and 
divinity, the age of muddy pamphlets, or the motley pages of the newspa 
per. We have no design to follow up these suggestions by showing how 
far the study of the natural sciences, the discussion /of political economy, 
or the advances of belles-lettres, have operated to produce this result ; far 
less to identify those causes, in the progress of western arts and commerce, 
which have concurred to bring down the price of books, and scatter the 
blessings of an untrammelled press, among all classes. It is sufficient for 
our purpose to say that even the lives of our distinguished native chieftains 
have come in for a share of modern notice, and, we feel proud to add, of 
a notice which, so far as it reaches, is worthy of the subject. And should 
our contributions on this head, for the last few years, be equally well fol- 
lowed up for a few years to come, even the desponding strains of one of 

146 



INDIAN RULERS. 



147 



their own impersonated heroes can no longer be repeated with perfect 
truth : I 

" They sink, they pass, they fly, they go, 
Like a vapor at morning's dawn, 
Or a flash of light, whose sudden glow 
Is seen, admired, and gone. 

" They died ; but if a brave man bleeds, 
And fills the dreamless grave. 
Shall none repeat his name, his deeds. 
Nor tell that he was brave ?" 

To no one in our . literary annals is the public so much mdebtedfor res- 
cuing from oblivion the traits and character of the four celebrated chiefs 
whose names stand at the head of this article, as to the able author of these 
biographies, William L. Stone. Gifted with a keen perception of the ques- 
tions of right and wrong, which turn upon the planting of the colonies 
among barbarians, who more than idled away their days upon a soil 
which they did not cultivate — with a deep sympathy in their fate and for- 
tunes, on the one hand, and the paramount claims of letters and Christian- 
ity on the other, he has set himself to the task of rendering justice to whom 
justice belongs, with the ardor of a philanthropist, and the research of a 
historian. He appears to have planned a series of biographies which, if 
completed, will give a connected view of the leading tribes who occupied 
New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, with a range 
in the examination of contemporary men and collateral topics, which em- 
braces a wide circle. And he has filled up the outlines of his plan, thus 
far, in a manner which leaves but little to glean in the path which he has 
trod. If the extension of this circle, and the large amount of contempo- 
raneous matter brought in, has, in the minds of some, abstracted too large 
a share of attention, and left the biographies with less unity and compact- 
ness than they would otherwise have assumed, this is exclusively the fault 
of their plan, so far as it is acknowledged, and not of the execution. And 
for this course of extension there is a plea to be found m the nature of the 
subject, in the treatment of which, scantiness of material was often sought 
to be supplied by the introduction of collateral and sometimes extraneous 
matter. 

We propose briefly to notice the scries of these biographies in their 
order of pubhcation. In his first work on Brant, he has presented, in liv- 
ing colors, the great Mohawk of 1776, who rose up to crush that confea- 
eracy which Washington and his compeers had pledged their lives to 
maintain. Brant was a man of power and capacities, mental and physical 
beyond his tribe ; and was so situated, in the actual contest, as to throv/ a 
greater weight into the scale against us, than any other, or all of the hos- 
tile chiefs of the Red Race put together. If he could not, like Ariel, call 



148 



INDIAN RULERS. 



up the "spirits of the vasty deep," he could, at his bidding, summon 
together the no less malignant spirits of the woods, who fell upon our 
sleeping hamlets with the fury of demons. And whether at Johnson Hall 
or Niagara, at Cherry Valley or Schoharie, on the waters of the Oriskany 
or the Chemung, he was the ruling and informing spirit of the contest. 
Such was the power he wielded as commander of a most effective body 
of light troops (for such are all Indian warriors), who were supported by 
large and well appointed armies, that, like the electric flashes of the boding 
storm, he preceded the heavier outbreak by sounding aloud the wild notes 
of terror and dismay. It was in this manner that his name became 
a talisman on the frontiers, to conjure up deeds of evil, and in this way 
also, doubtless, it became loaded with reproaches, some of which, as the 
author has denoted, were due to other actors in the contest. It is difficult, 
however, to disturb the judgments of a preceding age, on the character of 
individuals who have long passed off the stage of action, whether those 
judgments be favorable or unfavorable ; and it is, in fact, impossible to re- 
verse them. It is only necessary to glace backward a short way, on the 
track of biography, to perceive that posterity never revises the opinions 
once put on individual character, heroic or literary. It tries to forget all 
it can, and every body it can, and never remembers a long time any name 
which it is possible to forget. It is willing, we should infer, to concede 
something to the great men among barbarian nations, whose names have 
often burst upon civilized society with the fearful attractions of the meteor, 
or the comet, producing admiration in the beholders, without stopping to 
inquire the true cause. Such were the Tamerlanes, and the Tippoo Saibs 
of the eastern world, of a prior age, aS well as the Mehemet Alis and 
Abdel Kaders of the present. And such were, also, with reduced means 
of action, numbers of the American aboriginal chiefs, who, between the 
days of Manco Capac and Micanopy have figured in the history of the 
western world. Most of these men owe their celebrity to the mere fact of 
their having dazzled or astounded, or like Brant himself, excited the terror 
of those who opposed them. In the case of the latter, a change of opin- 
ion in those particular traits which affect his humanity, is less readily 
made, from the fact, yet generall}'- remembered, that he had received 
a Christian education ; that he was,'v.rhile a mere boy, received into the 
best society, acquired the English language, and had been instructed, first 
at a New England academy, and afterwards at one of its most practically 
efficient colleges. Posterity holds the Mohawk chief responsible to have 
carried the precepts thus obtained into the forest, and to have diffused their 
blessings among those who had perhaps his bravery, without his talents 
or his knowledge. Those who fought against him were ill qualified, we 
confess, to be his judges. He had not only espoused the wrong cause, 
wrong because it was adverse to the progress of national freedom and 
those very principles his people contended for ; but he battled for it with a 



INDIAN RULERS. 



149 



master's hand, and made the force of his energy felt, as the author has 
more fully indicated than was before known, from the banks of the Mo- 
hawk and the Niagara, to the Ohio, the Miami, and the Wabash. Yet, 
if there was error in the extent to which he failed to carry the precepts of civ- 
ilization and .Christianity, it was meet it should be pointed out, although it 
will also be admitted, the public have a right to look for the strongest of these 
proofs of a kind and benevolent feeling towards his open enemies, out of 
the range of his domestic circle. His family had carried the incipient 
principles of civilization, which he gave them, too high — they had exhib- 
ited to the next age, a too prominent example of cultivation and refinement 
in every sense — not to feel deeply the obloquy cast upon his name, by the 
poetic spirit of the times ; and not to v/ish that one who had, in verity, so 
many high and noble qualities, both in the council and the field, should 
also be without a spot on his humanity. We deem the feeling as honor- 
able to all who have the blood of the chieftain in their veins as it is praise- 
worthy in his biographer. We cannot, however, consent to forget, that 
historical truth is very severe in its requisitions, and is not to be put off, by 
friend or foe, with hearsay testimony, or plausible surmises. 

Brant cannot, like Xicotencal, be accused of having joined the invaders 
Df his country, who were recklessly resolved upon its subjugation ; but he 
overlooked the fact, that both the invader and the invaded in the long and 
bloody border warfare of the revolution, were, in all that constitutes charac- 
ter, the same people. They were of the same blood and lineage, spoke 
the same language, had the sam.e laws and customs, and the same litera- 
ture and religion, and he failed to see that the only real point of diflference 
between them was, who should wield the sceptre. Whichever party 
gained the day in such a contest, letters and Christianity must triumph, 
and as the inevitable result, barbarism must decline, and the power of the 
Indian nation fall. 

In Brant, barbarism and civilization evinced a strong and singular con- 
test. He was at one moment a savage, and at another a civilian, at one 
moment cruel, and at another humane ; and he exhibited, throughout all 
the heroic period of his career, a constant vacillation and struggle between 
good and bad, noble and ignoble feelings, and, as one or the other got the 
mastery, he was an angel of mercy, or a demon of destruction. In this re- 
spect, his character does not essentially vary from that which has been 
found to mark the other leading red men who, from Philip to Osceola, 
have appeared on the stage of action. Like them, his reasoning faculties 
were far less developed than his physical perceptions. And to attempt to 
follow or find anything like a fixed principle of humanity, basing itself on 
the higher obligations that sway the human breast, would, we fear, be- 
come a search after that which had no existence in his mind ; or if the 
germ was there, it was too feeble to become predominant. We do not 
think it necessary, in commenting on his life, ^ to enter into any r^ice 



160 



INDIAN RULERS. 



train of reasoning or motives to account for this characteristic, or to recon 
cile cruelties of the most shocking kind, when contrasted with traits 
of mildness and urbanity. They were different moods of the man, and 
in running back over the eventful years of his life, it becomes clear, that 
civilization had never so completely gained the mastery over his mind and 
heart, as not to desert him, without notice, the moment he heard the sound 
of the war-whoop. The fact that he could use the pen, supplied no in- 
superable motive against his wielding the war club. His tomahawk and 
his Testament lay on the same shelf The worst trait in his character is 
revealed in his tardiness to execute acts of fjuvposed mercy. There was 
too often some impediment, which served as an excuse, as when he had 
a ploughed field to cross to save Wells and his family, or a lame heel, or 
gave up the design altogether, as in the case of Wisner, whom he con- 
strued it into an act of mercy to tomahawk. 

That he was, however, a man of an extraordinary firmness, courage 
and decision of character, is without doubt. But his fate and fortunes 
have not been such as to give much encouragement to chiefs of the native 
race in lending their influence to European, or Anglo-European powers, 
who may be engaged in hostilities against each other on this continent. 
Pontiac had realized this before him, and Tecumtha realized it after him. 
Neither attained the object he sought. One of these chiefs was assassi- 
nated, the other fell in battle, and Brant himself only survived the defeat 
of his cause, to fret out his latter days in vain attempts to obtain justice 
from the power which he had most loyally served, and greatly benefited. 
Had he been knighted at the close of the contest, instead of being shuffled 
from one great man to another, at home and abroad, it would have been 
an instance of a noble exercise of that power. But George HI. seemed 
to have been fated, at all points, neither to do justice to his friends nor his 
enemies. 

Such v/as Brant, or Thayendanegea. symboUically, the Band of his 
tribe,* to whose lot it has fallen to act a more distinguished part in the 
Colonies, as a consummate warrior, than any other aboriginal chieftain 
who has arisen. And his memory was well worthy of the elaborate work 
in which his biographer has presented him, in the most favourable points 
of view, amidst a comprehensive history of the border wars of the revolu- 
tion, without, however, concealing atrocities of v/hich he was, perhaps 
sometimes unwillingly, the agent. 

A word, and but a word, will be added, as to some points connected 
with this chief's character, which are not in coincidence with the generally 
received opinion, or are now first introduced by way of palliation, or vin- 
dication. We confess, that so far as the presence or absence of the Great 
Mohawk in the massacre of Wyoming, is concerned, the statements are 

* The name is usually translated, two-sticks tied, or united. 



INDIAN RULERS. 



151 



either iiK^onclusive, or less sa.tisfactory than could be wished. There was 
quite too much feeling sometimes evinced by his family, and particularly 
his son John, to permit us to receive the new version of the statement with- 
out some grains of allowance. An investigation is instituted by Col. Stone 
as to the immediate ancestry of Brant, and much impoitance is attached 
to the inquiry, whether he was descended from a line of hereditary chiefs. 
We think the testimony adverse to such a supposition, and it affords no 
unequivocal proof of talents, that notwithstanding such an adventitious 
circumstance, certainly without being of the line of ruling chiefs, he ele- 
vated himself to be, not only the head chief and leader of his tribe, but of 
the .Six Nations. Courtesy and popular will attach the title of chief or 
sachem to men of talents, courage or eloquence among our tribes gene- 
ralty ; and while mere descent would devolve it upon a chief's son, what- 
ever might be his character, yet this fact alone would be of little import, 
and give him little influence, without abilities : whereas abilities alone are 
found to raise men of note to the chieftainship, among all the North 
American tribes, whose customs and character are known. 

It has constituted no part of our object, in these general outlines, to ex- 
amine minor points of the biography or history, upon which the information 
or the conclusions are not so satisfactory as could be wished, or which may, 
indeed, be at variance with our opinions. One fact, however, connected 
v/ith this name, it is not deemed proper to pass sub silentio. Brant is 
made to take a part in the Pontiac war, a contest arising on the fall of the 
French power in Canada in 1759, and which closed in 1763. Brant 
was at its close but twenty-one years of age, and had not, it is probable, 
finally returned from his New England tutors. At any rate, there is no 
reason to suppose, that, at that early period of his Hfe and his influence, 
he could have had any participation in the events of that war. 

In the life of Red Jacket, or Sagoyewata, we have a different order of In- 
dian intellect brought to view. He was an orator and a diplom.atist, and was 
at no period of his life noted for his skill as a warrior. Nay, there are 
indubitable proofs that his personal courage could not always be " screwed 
up to the sticking point." But in native intellect, he was even superior 
to Brant. He was, indeed, the Brant of the council, and often came down 
upon his opponents with bursts of eloquence, trains of argument, or rhap- 
sodies of thought, which were irresistible. And of him, it m.ay be sym- 
bolically said, that his tongue was his tomahawk, and the grandiloquent 
vocabulary of the Seneca language, his war-club. Nor has any native 
chieftain wielded the weapon to more purpose, or with a longer continued 
effect than the great Seneca orator. The specimens of his eloquence 
which have appeared in our newspapers for forty years or more, are still 
fresh in the memory, and it was due and meet that these should be col- 
lected and preserved in a permanent shape, together with such particulars 
of his hfe and career as could be obtained. This task has been performed 



152 



INDIAN RULERS. 



by Col. Stone, in a manner which leaves nothing more to be attempted on 
the subject. Much zeal and industry have been evinced in eliciting facts 
from every quarter where it vv^as probable information could be had. And 
he has brought together a body of contemporaneous proofs and reminis- 
cences, touching this chief, which a few years would have put beyond the 
power of recovery, and which a position less prominent than he occupied 
as a public journalist, might have rendered it difficult for another to collect. 
We need only refer to the names of Gen. P. B. Porter, Rev. J. Brecken- 
ridge, Mr. Parish, and Mr. Hosmer, to show the character of this part of 
his materials. 

Other chiefs of the native stock, have produced occasional pieces of elo- 
quence, or admired oratory, but Red-Jacket is the only prominent individual 
who has devoted his whole career to it. That he did, indeed, excel, pro- 
ducing effects which no reported speech of his ever equalled or did justice 
to, there are still many living to attest. In the question of land sales, 
which arose between the white and red races, there were frequent occa- 
sions to bring him. out. And these, in the end, assumed a complicated 
shape, from either the vague nature, or ill understood conditions of prior 
grants. In all these discussions, he preserved a unity and consistency in 
the set of opinions he had adopted. He was opposed to further sales, to 
removal, to civilization, and to the introduction of Christianit3r among his 
people. What Brant had done in politics^ Red-Jacket repeated in morals. 
Both took the wrong side, and both failed. But it is to be said of the Sen^ 
eca orator, that he did not live to see the final defeat of that course 
of policy which he had so long and so ably advocated. 

It was remarked by Mr. Clinton, and the fact had impressed others, that 
the Iroquois, or Six Nations, excelled the other natives in eloquence. Of 
this^ their history, during the Supremacy of Holland and England in New 
York, as given by Colden, furnishes ample proofs. The speech of Gar 
angula, against the Governor General of Canada and his wily policy, is 
unexcelled, as a whole, by anything which even Red-Jacket has left in 
print, though much of the effect of it is due to the superior and heroic po- 
sition occupied by the tribes for whom he spoke. Logan, unexcelled by 
all others for his pathos and simplicity, it must be remembered, was also 
of this stock, — Mingo, or Me?igive, as the Delawares pronounced it, being 
but a generic term for Iroquois ; so that the transmission of this trait, from 
the proud era of the Iroquois confederacy down to modern days, is quite 
in keeping with the opinion quoted. 

It is to be wished that Col. Stone would supply another link in the 
chain of Iroquois history, by favoring the public with the life of the noted 
Oneida chief, Shenandoah, for which materials must exist in the Kirkland 
family. 

The lives of the two men, Uncas and Miontonimo, whose leading asts 



INDIAN RULERS. 



153 



ire described in one of the volumes named in our caption, belong to au 
earlier period of history, and a different theatre of action. The scene 
changes from western New York to the seaboard of Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and, to some extent, Massachusetts. Uncas was the good genius, 
the tutelary spirit, if we may so say, of the colony of Connecticut ; and 
the best monument which that State could erect to his memory, would be 
to change the unmeaning and worn out name of one of her counties. New 
London, for that of the noble and friendly chief, of whose forest kingdom 
it once formed a part. From the first day that the English colonists set 
foot within it, to the hour of his death, Uncas was the unwavering " friend 
of the white man," as his biographer justly calls him. He was of that 
race, whom history has, without making a particle of allowance for sav- 
age ignorance and hereditary prejudice, branded under the name of Pe- 
quods. They were of that type of languages and lineage, which was 
very well characterized generically, at least as far south as the original 
country of the Delawares ; but which assumed a sub-type after crossing 
the Hudson, and was known east of that point under one of its superin- 
duced forms, as the Mohegan. This term had been dropped by the Pe- 
quods, if it was ever their specific cognomen, but it is a proof, and we think 
a very conclusive proof, of the yet freshly remembered affiliation with 
Taminund* and the Manhattans, that Uncas, the moment he revolted from 
King Sassacus, assumed the name of a Mohegan, and put himself at the 
head of that tribe, as it then existed within the boundaries of Connecticut. 
Or rather, he constituted the revolted Pequods a new tribe, under an old 
and respected name, and he thus laid the foundation of the Uncas dynasty. 
Placed thus by circumstances in a position in which he sought an alliance 
with the early colonists, and finding his security in theirs, he was in fact 
the only leading chief of the times who, really, heartily, and faithfully 
sought their prosperity and growth to the end. The rise of Uncas and 
Connecticut thus began at one era ; and as the alliance was founded on 
mutual interest and safety, it only grew stronger with time. A man of 
less force of character or natural sagacity than Uncas, would have vacillated 
when he saw the colonists becoming more powerful and himself more 
weak as years rolled on, and would have been seduced to enter into alli- 
ances for arresting the white man's power, as other native chiefs had done. 
But all history concurs in showing that, under every circumstance, and 
there were many of the most trying kind, he carried himself well, and 
avoided even a suspicion of his fidelity. 

Uncas was well qualified for a ruler both in mind and person. He pos- 
sessed a fine figure, over six feet in height, a commanding voice, and a 
noble bearing. He was mild yet dignified in his manners. He was not 

* The name of this chief is Anglicised in the word Tammany- 



154 



INDIAN RULERS. 



only wise in council, but brave* in war, as he evinced in many instances, 
but particularly in the battle of Sachem's Plain, in which he proved him- 
self the bravest and most chivalrous of the brave. Yet his wisdom and 
moderation in governing his people, and the well balanced justice and con- 
sistency of his character, give him a still higher reputation, and establish 
his best claim to remembrance. In all the trials in which he was placed, 
in all the temptations he had to fly into a rage, and act out the savage, he 
sustained this character for wise deliberation ; and by adhering to his first 
covenant with the English, and laying all his plans and grievances before 
the colonial courts, he raised himself in strength and reputation, and finally 
triumphed, first over Sassacus, and then over Miontonimo, the two great- 
est and most powerful of his immediate contemporaries. 

If Uncas was the patron of Connecticut, Miontonimo, with his family 
of the Narragansett chiefdom, was equally so of Rhode Island. And it is 
from this obvious fact, probably, in part, that we find the historical notices 
of him, from the last quarter, decidedly more favorable to his general 
character than those emanating from the land of his enemy and his con- 
queror, Uncas. While there is no disagreement as to any historical fact 
of note, it is natural that some little shade of feeling of this nature should 
remain. We have noticed a similar feeling with respect to existing tribes 
and chiefs, in the western world, where the inhabitants never fail to be 
imbued with those peculiar notions and traditions of the particular tribe 
about them, which represent the latter as the principal nation, and infest 
them with tribal traits of superiority. It is a feeling which leans to the 
better side of one's nature, and does honor to men's hearts ; but the histo- 
rian is obliged to look at such questions with a colder eye, and can never 
abate a tittle of the truth, although he may run counter to this local sym- 
pathy and bias. We could name some remarkable instances of this preju- 
dice, if we were willing to digress. 

If Miontonimo be compared to Uncas, it will at once be seen that 
he lacked the latter's sagacity and firmness of character. Had the Nar- 
ragansett listened to Sassacus, and formed a league with him, he would 
have crushed, for a time, the infant colony of Connecticut. This he de- 
clined, apparently, because it had the specific character of enabling Sassa- 
cus to put down Uncas. After the Pequod king had been defeated and 

■* The terms "brave" and "braves" used in a substantive sense, in this work, are 
neither English nor Indian. The Indian term should be translated strong-heart, its 
literal import ; for it is one of the general rules of these languages, that the operatioiv 
of the adjective, as well as action of the verb, is uniformly marked upon the substan- 
tive — there being, indeed, different inflections of each substantive, to denote whethei 
this operation or action be caused by a noble or ignoble, or an animate or inanimate ob- 
ject. Still the general use of the Canadian term Brme, on our Indian border, may 
give it some poetic claims to introduction mto our vernacular, burthened as it alieady is 
with more objectionable Americanisms. 



INDIAN RULERS. 



155 • / 



fled to the Mohawks, Miontonimo was left in a position to assume the Pe- 
quod's policy, and then tried to bring Uncas into just such a combination 
to fall on the colonists, as he had himself refused, when the proposition 
came from Sassacus. As Uncas not only refused, but laid the scheme be- 
fore his allies, Miontonimo went to war against him, with a large army. 
Uncas hastily prepared to meet him, with a smaller force. They met on 
Sachem's Plain, on the banks of the Shawtucket. Uncas, unwiUing to 
see so many of his people slain in battle, nobly stepped forward and pro- 
posed a personal combat, to decide the question of who should rule, and 
who obey. It was declined, but the moment the reply was made, he 
threw himself on the plain, a signal, it seems, for his men to advance, and 
they came on with such an impulse, that he won the day and took Mion- 
tonimo prisoner. This capture was the act of one of his minor chiefs ; 
but when his enemy was brought before him, he dechned exercising his 
right of putting him to death, but determined to refer the matter to the au- 
thorities of Hartford. There it was found to be a knotty question, and 
finally referred to the General Court at Boston. The Court strengthened 
itself with the opinions of six distinguished clergymen and several eminent 
civilians ; and then decided, that the Narragansett chief had justly forfeited 
his life, by violating his political covenants with the colonies, but it might 
not be taken away hy them. He must be remanded to Uncas, within his 
jurisdiction, and by him be executed ; but it was enjoined, with a very 
poor compliment to the known mildness of the character of Uncas, that no 
needless cruelty should be pra^itised. Here, then, the white man evinced 
less mercy than the red had done. Miontonimo was now released from 
his confinement, and conducted back to the very spot where he had first 
been taken prisoner, as he approached which, one of the Mohegans who 
accompanied him,. keeping him in entire ignorance of his fate, raised his 
iomahawk as he walked behind him, and laid him dead at a blow. 

Whether the moral responsibility of this execution rests with the court, 
or the executioner, we do not propose particularly to inquire, nor to ascer- 
tain to what degree it was shufiied ofi', by directing an Indian to commit 
an act which it was unlawful for a white man and a Christian to perform. 
Had Uncas slain his adversary in cold blood, after the action, the thing 
would have been in perfect accordance with Indian law. Had Mionton- 
imo been a subject of either of the colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island 
or Massachusetts, and levied war, or committed any overt act of treason, 
his execution would have been in accordance with the laws of civilized 
nations. Neither condition happened. It was, however, felt, that the 
great disturber of the colonies, after Sassacus, had now been caugiit. He 
' had violated his covenant by going to war without apprising them. They 
did not believe he would keep any future covenants. The moral sense 
of the community would not be shocked, but rather gratified by his exe- 
cution. This point was strongly signified to the court. But they could 



• 156 



INDIAN RULERS. 



not legally compass it. English law opposed it. The customs of civil 
ized nations, in warring with each other ^ opposed it. Should a differen* 
rule be observed towards the aborigines 1 Did the dictates of sound judg- 
ment and common sense, did the precepts of ^ Christianity, — aye, " there 
was the rub,"— did the precepts of Christianity sanction it? On full de- 
liberation, — for the question was not decided in haste, — neither of these 
points could be affirmatively answered. But while policy — the policy of 
expediency^ the lust of power, and the offended moral sense of an exposed 
and suffering community demanded, as it was thought, the death of the 
sachem, still it was not found that one whom they had ever treated, and 
then viewed, as a foreign prince, legally considered, could be thus de- 
prived of his life. Imprisonment was not, as a permanent policy, resolved 
on. There was one course left to escape both dilemmas, and to avoid all 
censure. It was to restore things to the precise footing they had before 
his surrender. It was to hand him back to Uncas, without the expression 
of any decision, leaving that chieftain to act as he deemed fit. They re- 
manded him indeed, but went one step too far, by first deciding in a formal 
court, after months of deliberation, in the course of which the clergy and 
gentry, (this is a term that would be proper to the times) had been form 
ally consulted, and directed his death, stipulating only that he should not 
be killed with cruelty. If there was not something that smacks of the 
want of true and noble dealing in this — if it accorded with the bland pre- 
cepts of Christianity, to do unto others as you would that others should do 
unto you— if the act did not, in fine, partake of the very spirit of Jesuitism 
in the worst sense in which the word has been adopted into the language, 
we have, we confess, formed a totally wrong idea of its meaning. 

A case, in some respects similar to this, happened in modern times, 
which may be thought to contrast rather strongly with the above example 
of Puritan mercy. The reasons for a capital punishment, were, indeed, 
far more cogent, and the community called out strongly for it, and would 
have sustained it. It was the capture of Black Hawk, which, it will be 
recollected, took place during the first Presidential term of General Jack- 
son. Black Hawk had levied war within the boundaries of one of the 
States, on lands ceded by treaty, and organized a confederacy of Indian 
tribes, which, though broken up in part, chiefly through the failure of the 
other tribes to fulfil their engagements with him, yet required for its sup- 
pression the entire disposable force of the Union. The Sac chief was 
finally captured on Indian territory, in the act of fleeing west of the Mis- 
sissippi. He was imprisoned, and the case referred to the Government 
for decision. He had broken his treaty covenants. He had not only 
made war, but in its outbreak and its continuance, had been guilty of coun- 
tenancing, at least,^ the most shocking barbarities. He had, indeed, opened 
the scene by cruelly murdering the agent of the Government, the repre- 
sentative of the President, in the person of Mr. St. Vrain. The commu- 



INDIAN EULERS. 



157 



nity, the western States particularly, called loudly for his execution. 
There could be no security, it was said, if such a bloody fellow was al- 
allowed to roam at large. He had forfeited his life a thousand times. 
There was, indeed, the same popular feeling against him, which had ex- 
isted in New England, one hundred and ninety years before, against 
Miontonimo. But could he have been legally executed? And if so, was 
it, indeed, the true policy ? Was it noble — was it high-minded '? Was 
it meting out exact and equal justice to men with red skins, as well as 
white? It was thought that all these questions must be negatively 
answered ; and the bold Sac insurgent was sent home, accompanied by an 
officer of the army, to secure his comfort and safety, and thus to see that a 
wise and merciful decision should be faithfully carried out, and popular 
indignation be prevented from wreaking itself, in the assassination of the 
chief 

In closing these remarks, it may appear selfish to express the hope, that 
Mr. Stone, to whom we are already indebted for these spirited, compre- 
hensive, and well written volumes, should still further employ his pen in 
adding to the sum of these obligations. But he has so well studied the 
field in its historical bearing, so far at least as relates to the eastern depart- 
ment of the Union, that we know of no one to whom the labour would 
present less of the character of a task. We are in want of a good account 
of Philip, or Metacom, the energetic sachem of the Pokenokets, who im- 
personated so fully the wild Indian character, and views, and battled so 
stoutly against the occupancy of New England by the Saxon race. In 
showing up to modern times such a man, we think a biography would de- 
rive very deep interest, and it would certainly be a new experiment, to 
take up the aboriginal views and opinions of the invading race, and thus 
write, as it were, from within^ instead of without the circle of warlike ac- 
tion. In this way, their combinations, efforts and power, would better ap- 
pear, and redound more to the credit of the aboriginal actors, as warriors 
and heroes. As it is, history only alludes to them as conspirators, rebels, 
traitors, or culprits ; as if the fact of their opposing the egress of civilized 
nations, who v/ere in all res^pects wiser and better, were sufficient to blot 
out all their right and claim to the soil and sovereignty of the land of their 
forefathers, and they were in fact bound to stand back, and give it up 7iole7is 
volens. 

We had designed to subjoin a few remarks on the biographical labors 
of other writers in this department, particularly those of Thatcher and 
Drake, but our limits are already exhausted, and we must abandon, or at 
least, defer it. 



THE RABID WOLF. 

V 



A VERITABLE TRADITION OF THE VALLEY OF THE TAWASENTHA. 



The great Pine Plains, beginning not far south of the junction of the 
Mohawk with the North River, are still infested by wolves, who harbour 
in its deep gorges, from which they sally out at night, on the sheep-folds 
of the farmers, and often put a whole neighbourhood in fear. The rail- 
road track from Albany to Schenectady, passes over a part of these plains, 
which stretch away in the direction of the blue outlines of the Hel- 
derberg mountains. It is many miles across the narrowest part of them, 
and they reach down to the very outskirts of the city of Albany, where 
they have of late years, and since Buel's day, begun to cultivate them by 
sowing clover, planting fruit trees, and in other ways. They constitute 
the table land of the county, and send out from beneath their heavy mass 
of yellow sand and broken down sand stones, mica slates, and granites, 
many springs and streams of the purest and most crystalline waters, which 
find their outlets chiefly into the valley of the Tawasentha, or, as the river 
is called in popular language, the Norman's Kill, and are thus contributed 
to swell the noble volume of the Hudson. These springs issue at the pre- 
cise point where the arenaceous mass rests on a clay or impervious basis. 
The effect, in ancient years, has been that the sand is carried off, grain by 
grain, till a deep ravine or gorge is formed. The sides of this gorge 
being composed of mixed earth and some mould, and free from the aridity 
of the surface, bear a dense and vigorous growth of hard wood trees and 
shrubbery, and are often found to be encumbered with immense trunks of 
fallen pines and other forest rubbish, which renders it very difficult to 
penetrate them. It is into these dark gorges that the wolves retreat, after 
scouring the plains and neighbouring farms for prey : and here they have 
maintained their ancient empire from time immemorial. Such, at least, 
was the state of things between the settlers and the wolves, at the date of 
this story, in 1807. 

Sometimes the whole country armed and turned out en masse^ to ferret 
them out of their fastnesses and destroy them ; and truly the forces 
assembled on some of these wolf-hunts were surprising, and, in one 
respect, that is to say, the motley and uncouth character of their arms, 
they would have put both Bonaparte and Wellington to flight. There 
was nothing, from a pitchfork to a heavy blunderbuss, which they did not 
carry, always excepting a good rifle, which I never remember to have 
seen on these occasions. Indeed, these formal turn-outs were better suited 
to frighten away, than to kill and capture the foe ; so that there was no 



VILLAGE TRADITION. 



159 



just cause of surprise why the wolves remained, and even increased. 
They still kept masters of the Plains — sheep were killed by dozens, night 
after night, and the alarm went on. 

It was at other times tried to trap. them, and to bait them in sundry ways. 
I recollect that we all had implicit faith in the village schoolmaster, one 
Cleanthus, \vho knew some Latin, and a little of almost every thing ; and 
among other arts which he cherished, and dealt out in a way to excite 
wonder for his skill, he knew how to make the wolves follow his tracks, 
by smearing his shoes with oesofosdita, or some other substance, and then 
ensconcing himself at night in a log pen, where he might bid defiance to 
the best of them, and shoot at them besides. But I never could learn that 
there were any of these pestiferous animals killed, either by the school- 
master and his party, or any other party, except it was the luckless poor 
animal I am about to write of, which showed its affinities to the canine 
race by turning rabid, and rushing at night into the midst of a populous 
manufacturing village. 

Iosco was eligibly seated on the summit and brow of a picturesque 
series of low crowned hills, just on the southern verge of the-se great 
Plains, where the tillable and settled land begins. It was, consequently, 
in relation to these wolves, a perfect frontier ; and we had not only fre- 
quent alarms, but also the privilege and benefit of hearing all the won- 
derful stories of wolf-adventure, to man and beast, for a wide circle. In- 
deed, these stories often came back with interest, from the German and 
Dutch along the Swarta Kill, and Boza Kill settlements, away up to the foot 
of the Helderberg mountains. A beautiful and clear stream of sparkling 
cold water, called the Hungerkill, after gathering its crystal tributaries from 
the deep gorges of the plains, ran through the village, and afforded one 
or two seats for mills, and after winding and doubling on its track a mile 
or two, rendered its pellucid stores into the Norman's Kill, or, as this 
stream was called by the ancient Mohawk race, in allusion to their sleep- 
ing dead, the Tavvasentha. No stream in the country was more famous 
for the abundance of its fine brook trout, and the neighbouring plains 
served to shelter the timid hare, and the fine species of northern partridge, 
which is there always called a pheasant. 

The village was supported by its manufacturing interests, and was 
quite populous. It had a number of long streets, some of which reached 
across the stream, and over a spacious mill pond, and others swept at 
right angles along the course of the great Cherry Valley turnpike. In 
its streets were to be heard, in addition to the English, nearly all the dia- 
lects of the German between the Rhine and the Danube ; the Low Dutch 
as spoken by the common country people on the manor of Rensselaer- 
wyck, the Erse and Gaelic, as not unfrequently used by the large pro- 
portion of its Irish and Scotch, and what seemed quite as striking to one 
brought up in seclusion from it, the genuine Yankee, as discoursed by 



160 VILLAGE TRADITION. 

the increasing class of factory wood choppers, teamsters, schoolmasters, 
men out at the elbows, and travelling wits. The latter were indeed but a 
sorry representation of New England, as we have since found it. No 
small amount of superstitions were believed and recited in the social meet- 
ings of such a mixed foreign population. Accounts of instances of the 
second sight, death-lights on the meadows and in the churchyard, the 
low howling of premonitory dogs before funerals, and other legendary 
wares, to say nothing of the actual and veritable number of downright 
spooks, seen on various occasions, on the lands of the Veeders, the Van 
Valken burgs, the Truaxes, and the Lagranges, rendered it a terror to ail 
children under twelve to stir out of doors after dark. There were in the 
annals of Iosco, several events in the historical way which served as per- 
fect eras to its inhabitants ; but none, it is believed, of so striking and 
general importance as the story of the Mad "Wolf, of which I am about 
to write. 

There had been found, soon after the close of the revolutionary war, 
in a dark wood very near the road, pieces of a cloth coat and metallic 
buttons, and other things, which rendered it certain that a man had been 
murdered at that spot, in consequence of which the place was shunned, 
or hurried by, as if a spirit of evil had its abode there. On 'another oc- 
casion, the body of a poor old man of the name of Homel, was found 
drowned deep in the Norman's Kill, clasped in the arms of his wife, both 
dead. A gentleman of standing, who ventured alone, rather groggy, 
one dark night, over the long unrailed bridge that crossed the mill pond, 
pitched upon some sharp pallisadoes in the water, and came to a melan- 
choly end. Hormaun, an Iroquois, who haunted the valley, had killed, 
it was said, ninety-nine men, and was waiting an opportunity to fill his 
count, by dispatching his hundredth man. This was a greatly dreaded 
event, particularly by the boys. There was also the era, when a Race 
Course had been established on a spot called the " Colonel's Farm," and 
the era of the " Deep Snow." There were many other events celebrated 
in Iosco, such as the De Zeng era, the Van Rensselaer era, and the Van 
Kieeck era, which helped the good mothers to remember the period 
when their children were born ; but none, indeed, of so notable a cha- 
racter to youthful minds as the adventure of the mad wolf 

Wolf stories were in vogue, in fact, in the evening and tea party circles 
of Iosco for many years ; and if one would take every thing as it was 
given, there had been more acts of braverj;-, conduct, and firm decision of 
character and foresight, displayed in encountering these wild vixens of 
the plains and valleys by night, than would, if united, have been suffi- 
cient to repel the inroads of Burgoyne, St. Leger, or Sir John Johnson, 
with Brant, and all his hosts of tories and Indians, during the American 
revolution. 

I chanced one night to have left the city of Albany, in company with 



VILLAGE TRADITION. 



161 



one of these heroic spirits. We occupied my father's chaise, an old- 
fashioned piece of gentility now out of vogue, drawn by a prime horse, 
one which he always rode on parades. It was late before we got out of 
the pr,ecincts of the city, and up the hill, and night overtook us away in 
the pine woods, at Billy McKown's, a noted public-house seated half way 
between the city and Iosco, where it was customary in those days to halt ; 
for besides that he was much respected, and one of the most sensible and 
mfluential men in the town, it was not thought right, whatever the traveller 
might require, that a horse should be driven eight miles without drawing 
breath, and having a pail of water. As I was but young, and less of a 
charioteer than my valiant companion, he held the whip and reins thus 
far ; but after the wolf stories that poured in upon us at McKown's that 
evening, he would hold them no longer. Every man, he thought, was 
responsible to himself He did not wish to be wolfs meat that night, so 
he hired a fleet horse from our host, and a whip and spurs, and set off 
with the speed of a Jehu, leaving me to make my way, in the heavy 
chaise, through the sandy plains, as best I could. 

In truth we had just reached the most sombre part of the plain, where 
the trees were more thick, the sand deep and heavy, and not a house but 
one, within the four miles. To render it worse, this was the chief locality 
of wolf insolence, where he had even ventured to attack men. It was on 
this route too, that the schoolmaster had used his medical arts, which made 
it better known through the country as the supposed centre of their power. 
Nothing harmed me, however ; the horse was line, and I reached home 
not only uneaten, but unthreatened by a wolf's jaw. 

But I must confine myself to the matter in hand. A large and fierce 
wolf sallied out of the plains one dark summer's night, and rushed into 
the midst of the village, snapping to the right and left as he went, and 
bitmg every animal that came in his way. Cows, swine, pigs, geese — 
every species, vv^hether on four legs, or two legs, shared its malice alike. 
The animal seemed to have a perfect ubiquity — it was every where, and 
seemed to have spared nothing. It is not recollected that there was a 
single house, or barn-yard in the village, where something had not been 
bitten. If he had come on an errand of retribution, for the great and 
threatening wolf-parties which had gone out against his race, and all the 
occult arts of the schoolmaster in trying to decoy them at Barrett's hollow, 
he could not have dealt out his venomous snaps more indiscriminately. 

It must have been about midnight, or soon after, that the fearful visiter 
came. Midnight, in a country village, finds almost every one in bed, but 
such was the uproar among the animal creation, made by this strange in- 
terloper, that out of bed they soon come. The cattle bellowed, the pigs 
squealed, the poukry cackled — there must be something amiss. Santa 
Claus himself must be playing his pranks. " A wolf!" was the cry— "a 
wolf is committing havoc." " It is mad !" came next on the voices of the 

12 



162 



VILLAGE TRADITION. 



night. " A mad wolf ! — a mad wolf !" Nothing but a mad wolf could ven- 
ture alone into the heart of the village, and do so much mischief. Out 
ran the people into the streets, men, women and all. Some caught up 
guns, some clubs, some pitchforks. If the tories and Indians, in the old 
French war, had broke into the settlement with fire and sword, there 
could not have been a greater tumult, and nothing but a mad wolf would 
have stood his ground. Where is he 1 which way did he run ? who 
saw him ? and a thousand like expressions followed. He had gone south, 
and south the mob pushed after him. He v/as away over on the street 
that leads up from the middle factory. It was a cloudy night, or the moon 
only came out fitfully, and threw light enough to discern objects dimly, 
as the clouds rolled before it. Indistinct murmurs came on the breeze, 
and at length the scream of a woman. The cause of it soon followed. 
The wolf had bitten Mrs. Sitz. Now Mrs. Sitz was a careful, tall, rigid- 
faced, wakeful housewife, from the dutchy of Hesse D'Armstadt, who 
had followed the fortunes of her husband, in trying his mechanical skill 
in the precincts of Iosco : but while her husband Frank laid fast asleep, 
under the influence of a hard day's labour, her ears were open to the 
coming alarm. It was not long before she heard a tumult in her goose 
pen. The rabid animal had bounded into the midst of them, which 
created as great an outcry as if Rome had a second time been invaded. 
Out she ran to their relief, not knowing the character of the disturber, 
but naturally thinking it was some thief of a neighbour, who wished to 
make provision for a coming Christmas. The animal gave her one snap 
and leapt the pen. " Mein hemel !" screamed she, " er hat mein gebis- 
sen !" Sure enough the wolf had bit her in the thigh. 

The party in chase soon came up, and while some stopt to parley and 
sympathize with her, others pushed on after the animal — the spitzbug, as 
she spitefully called him. By this time the v</o[f had made a circuit of 
the southern part of the village, and scampered down the old factory road, 
by the mill dam, under the old dark bridge at the s,aw mill, and up the 
hill by the old public store; and thus turned his course back towards the 
north, into the thickest part of the village, where he had first entered. 
He had made a complete circuit. All was valour, boasting, and hot speed 
behind him, but the wolf had been too nimble for them. Unluckily fot 
him, however, while the main group pushed behind, just as he was scam 
pering up the old store hill, he was suddenly headed by a party coming 
down it. This party was led by old Colonel S., a revolutionary soldier 
a field-officer of the county militia, and the superintendent of the exten 
sive manufacturing establishment from which the village drew its pros 
perity. He was armed with a fusil of the olden time, well charged, and 
having been roused from his bed in a hurry, could not at the moment find 
his hat, and clapt on an old revolutionary cocked hat, which hung in the 
room. His appearance was most opportune ; he halted on the brow of 



VILLAGE TRADITION. 



163 



the hill; and as the wolf bounded on he levelled his piece at the passing 
fugitive, and fired. He had aimed at the shoulders ; the fleetness of its 
speed, however, saved its vital parts, but the shot took effect in the ani- 
mal's hind legs. They were both broken at a shot. This brought him 
down. The poor creature tried to drag himself on by his fore paws, 
but his pursuers were too close upon him, and they soon dispatched him 
with hatchets and clubs. 

Thus fell the rabid wolf, to be long talked of by men and boys, and 
put down as a chief item in village traditions. But the effects of his visit 
did not end here. In due time, symptoms of madness seized the cattle 
and other animals, which had come within the reach of his teeth. Many 
of the finest milch cows were shot. Calves and swine, and even poultry 
went rabid ; and as things of this kind are generally overdone, there was 
a perfect panic in the village on the subject, and numbers of valuable 
animals were doubtless shot, merely because they happened to show some 
restiveness at a very critical epoch. 

But what, methinks the reader is ready to ask, became of Mrs. Sitz 1 
Whether it was, that she had brought over some mystical arts from the 
Wild Fluntsman of Bohemia, or had derived protection from the venom 
through the carefully administered medicines of Dr. Crouse, who duly 
attended the case, or some inherent influence of the stout hearted womian, 
or the audacity of the bite itself, had proved more than a match for the 
wolf, I cannot say ; but certain it is, that while oxen and kine, swine and 
fatlings, fell under the virus and were shot, she recovered, and lived 
many years to scold her dozing husband Frank, who did not jump up 
immediately, and come to her rescue at the goose pen. 



Indian Possessions. — The Ottoes own, at the latest accounts, a large 
tract of country on the Big Platte, west of the Missouri ; they are a poor 
race of people, and receive a small annuity of $2,500. The Pawnees are 
a powerful body, and number about 6,500 persons, divided into bands un- 
der the names of Pawnee Loups, Grand Pawnees, Republican Pawnees, 
Pawnee Pics, &c. ; they are wild and furtive in their habits, and receive 
provisions and goods. The Grand Nation is the Pottowattomies, or the 
" united bands of the Chippevvas, Ottawas, and Pottowattomies." They 
own five millions of acres of prairie lands, along the Missouri river to 
the Little Sioux, number about 2,000, and receive $42,000 * year for 
their lands sold in Illinois and Michigan. They are a respeciabie body 
01 Indians, are good farmers, and educate their children. The payment ot 
the annuities is always a season of great hilarity and festivity. — N. O. Pic. 



It is a characteristic of some of the Indian legends, that they convey a moral which 
seems clearly enough to denote, that a part of these legends were invented to convey 
instruction to the j^oung folks who listen to them. The known abseupe of all harsh 
methods among the Indians, in bringing up their children, favours this idea. The fol- 
lowing tale addresses itself plainly to girls : to whom it teaches the danger of what we 
denominate coquetry. It would seem from this, that beauty, and its concomitant, a 
passion for dress, among the red daughters of Adam and Eve, has the same tendency 
to create pride, and nourish self-conceit, and self-esteem, and assume a tyranny over the 
human heart, which writers tell us, these qualities have among their white-skinned, 
auburn-haired, and blue-eyed progeny the world over. This tale has appeared in the 
" Columbian.'* The term Moowis is one of the most derogative and offensive possible. 
It is derived from the Odjibwa substantive, mo, fiith, or excrement. 

MOOWIS, 

OR 

THE MAN MADE UP OF RAGS AND DIRT. 

A TRADITIONARY LEGEND OF THE ODJIBWAS. 

In a large village, there lived a noted belle, or Ma mon da go k^va, who 
was the admiration of all the young hunters and warriors. She was 
particularly admired by a young man, who from his good figure, and the 
care he took in his dress, was called the Beau-Man, or Ma mon da gin in-e. 
This young man had a friend and companion, whom he made a confidant 
of his affairs. " Come," said he, one day in a sportive mood, " let us go a 
courting to her who is so handsome, perhaps she may fancy one of us." 
But she would listen to neither of them, and when the handsome young 
man rallied from the coldness of her air, and made an effort to overcome 
her indifference, she put together her thumb and three fingers, and raising 
her hand gracefully towards him, deliberatel}^ opened them in his face. 
This gesticulatory mode of rejection is one of the highest contempt, and 
the young hunter retired confused and abashed. His sense of pride was 
deeply wounded, and he was the more piqued, that it had been done in 
the presence of others, and the affair was soon noised about the village, 
and became the talk of every lodge circle. Besides, he was a very sen- 
sitive man, and the thing so preyed upon him, that he became moody, 
and at last took to his bed. He was taciturn, often lying for days without 
uttermg a word, with his eyes fixed on vacancy, and taking little or no 
food. From this state no efforts could rouse him : he felt abashed and dis- 
honoured, even in the presence of his own relatives, and no persuasions 
could induce him to rise. So that when the family prepared to take? 
down the lodge to remove, he still kept his bed, and they were compelled 
to lift it over his head, and leave him upon his skin couch. It was a time 
of general removal and breaking up of the camp, for it was only a win- 
ter's hunting camp, and as the season of the hunt was now over, and 

164 



TRADITIONARY LEGENDlS. 



165 



spring began to appear, they all moved off, as by one impulse, to the plac^ 
of their summer village, and in a short time, all were gone, and he was 
left alone. The last person to leave him was his boon companion, and 
cousin, who has been mentioned as also one of the admirers of the 
forest belle. But even his voice was disregarded, and as soon as his steps 
died away on the creaking snow, the stillness and solitude of the wilder- 
ness reigned around. 

As soon as all were gone, and he could no longer, by listening, hear the 
remotest sounds of the departing camp, the Beau-Man arose. It is to be 
understood that this youug man was aided by a powerful guardian spirit, 
or personal Moneto ; and he resolved to make use of his utmost power to 
punish and humble the girl. For she was noted in the tribe for her co- 
quetry, and had treated others, who were every way her equals, as she 
had done him. He resolved on a singular stratagem, by way of revenge. 
For this purpose, he walked over the deserted camp, and gathered up all 
the bits of soiled cloth, clippings of finery, and cast off clothing, and 
ornaments which had either been left or lost. These he carefully picked 
out of the snow, into which some of them had been trodden and 
partially buried, and conveyed them to one place. The motly heap of 
gaudy and soiled stuffs, he restored to their original beauty, and deter- 
mined to make them into a coat and leggins, which he trimmed with 
beads, and finished and decorated after the best fashion of his tribe. He 
then made a pair of moccasins and garnished them with beads, a bow and 
arrows, and a frontlet and feathers for the head. Having done this, he 
searched about for cast out bones of animals, pieces of skins, clippings of 
dried meat, and even dirt, and having cemented them together with snow, he 
filled the clothes with these things, and pressed the mass firmly in, and 
fashioned it externally in all respects, like a tall and well framed man. 
He put a bow and arrows in his hands, and the frontlet on his head. And 
having finished it, he brought it to life, and the image stood forth, in the 
most favoured lineaments of his fellows. Such was the origin of Moo wis, 
or the Dirt and Rag Man, 

" Follow me," said the Beau-Man, " and I will direct you, how you shall 
act." He was indeed, a very sightly person, and as they entered the new 
encampment, the many colours of his clothes, the profusion of ornaments 
which he had managed to give him, and his fine manly step, and animated 
countenance, drew all eyes. And he was received by all, both old and 
young, with marks of attention. The chief invited him to his lodge, and 
he was feasted on the moose's hump and the finest venison. 

But no one was better pleased with the handsome stranger than M-a mon 
da go kwa. She fell in love with him at the first sight, and he was an 
invited guest at the lodge of her mother, the very first evening of his ar 
rival. The Beau-man went with him, for it was under his patronage that 
he had been introduced, and, in truth, he had another motive for accom- 
panying him, for he had not yet wholly subdued his feelings of admira 



166 



TRADITIONARY LEGENDS. 



tion for the object, against whom he had, nevertheless, exerted all his 
necromantic power, and he held himself subject to any favourable turn, 
which he secretly hoped the visit might take, in relation to himself But 
no such turn occurred. Moowis attracted the chief attention, and every 
eye and heart wqre alert to entertain him. In this effort on the part of 
his entertainers, they had well nigh revealed his true character, and dis- 
solved him into his original elements of rags, and snow, and dirt ; for he 
was assigned the most prominent place before the fire : this was a degree 
of heat which he could by no means endure. To ward it off he put a 
boy between himself and the fire. He shifted his position frequently, and 
evaded, by dexterous mancsuvres, and timely remarks, the pressing invi- 
tation of his host to sit up, and enjoy it. He so managed these excuses, as 
not only to conceal his dread of immediate dissolution, but to secure the 
further approbation of the fair forest ^irl, who could not but admire one 
who had so brave a spirit of endurance against the paralysing effects of 
cold. 

The visit proved that the rejected lover had well calculated the effects 
of his plan. He withdrew^ from the lodge, and Moowis triumphed. 
Before he went, he saw him cross the lodge to the coveted abinosj or bride- 
groom's seat. Marriage in the forest race, is a simple ceremony, and 
where the impediments of custom are small, there is but liule time de 
manded for their execution. The dart which Ma mon da go kwa had so 
often delighted in sending to the hearts of her admirers, she was at length 
fated herself to receive. She had married an image. As the morning 
begun to break, the stranger arose and adjusted his warrior's plumes, and 
took his forest weapons to depart. " I must go," said he, " for I have an 
important business to do, and there are many hills and streams between 
me and the object of my journey." " I will go with you," she replied. 
" It is too far," he rejoined, " and you are ill able to encounter the perils 
of the way." " It is not so far, but that I can go," she responded, " and 
there are no dangers which I will not fully share for you." 

Moowis returned to the lodge of his master, and detailed to him the 
events we have described. Pity, for a moment, seized the breast of the 
rejected youth. He regretted that she should thus have cast herself away 
upon an image and a shadow, when she might have been mistress of the 
best lodge in the band. " But it is her own folly," he said, " she has 
turned a deaf ear to the counsels of prudence, and she must submit to her 
fate." 

The same morning the Image-man set forth, and his wife followed him, 
according to custom, at a distance. The way was rough and intricate, 
and she could not keep up with his rapid pace : but she struggled hard, 
and perseveringly to overtake him. Moowis had been long out of sight, 
when the sun arose, and commenced upon his snow-formed body the 
work of dissolution. He began to melt away, and fall to pieces. As 
she followed him^ piece after piece of his clothing were found in the path. 



TRADITIONARY LEGENDS. 



167 



She first found his mittens, then his moccasins, then his leggins, then his 
coat, and other parts of his garments. As the heat unbound th6m, they 
had all returned also to their debased and fihh}" condition. The way led 
over rocks, through wind falls, across marshes. It whirled about to all 
points of the compass, and had no certain direction or object. Rags, 
bones, leather, beads, feathers, and soiled ribbons, were found, but she 
never caugiit the sight of Moowis. She spent, the day in wandering ; and 
when evening came, she was no nearer the object of her search than in 
the morning, but the snow having now melted, she had completely lost 
his track, and wandered about, uncertain which way to go, and in a state 
of perfect despair. Finding herself lost, she begun, with bitter cries, to 
bewail her fate. 

"Moowis, Moowis," she cried. "Nin ge won e win ig, ne won e win ig" 
— that is — Moovv'is, Moovvis, you have led me astray — you are leading me 
astray. And with this ciy she continued to wander in the woods. 

Sometimes the village girls repeat the above words, varying the expres- 
sions, till they constitute an irregular kind of song, which, according to 
the versions of a friendly hand, may be set down as follows : — 

Moowis ! Moowis ! 

Forest rover, 

Where art thou ? • 

Ah my bravest, gayest lover, *^ 
Guide me now. 

Moowis ! Moowis ! 

Ah believe me, 
List my moan, 

Do not — do not, brave heart, leave me 
All alone. 

Moowis ! Moowis ! 

Foot-prints vanished, 
Whither wend I, 

Fated, lost, detested, banished, 
Must I die. 

Moowis ! Moowis ! 

Whither goest, 
Eye-bright' lover, 

Ah thou ravenous bird that knovvest, 
I see you hover. 

Circling — circling, 

As I wander. 
But to spy 

Where I fall, and then to batten, 
On my breast. 



THE LONE LIGHTNING. 



AN ODJTBWA TALE. 

A LITTLE orphan boy who had no one to care for him, was once living 
with his uncle, who treated him very badly, making him do hard things 
and giving him very little to eat ; so that the boy pined away, h-e j^ever 
grew much, and became, through hard usage, very thin and light. At 
last the uncle felt ashamed of this treatment, and determined to make 
amends for it, by fattening him up, but his real object was, to kill him 
by over-feeding. He told his wife to give the boy plenty of bear's meat, 
and let him have the fat, which is thought to be the best part. They 
were both very assiduous in cramming him, and one day came near 
choking him to death, by forcing the fat down his throat. The boy 
escaped and fled from the lodge. He knew not where to go, but wan- 
dered about. When night came on, he was afraid the wild beasts would 
eat him, so he climbed up into the forks of a high pine tree, and there 
he fell asleep in the branches, and had an aupoway, or ominous dream. 

A person appeared to him from the upper sky, and said, " My poor little 
lad, I pity you, and the bad usage you have received from your uncle 
has led me to visit you : follow me, and step in my tracks. " Immediately 
his sleep left him, and he rose up and followed his guide, mounting up 
higher and higher into the air, until he reached the upper sky. Here 
twelve arrov/s were put into his hands, and he was told that there were 
a great many manitoes in the northern sky, against whom he must go to 
war, and try to waylay and shoot them. Accordingly he went to that 
part of the sky, and, at long intervals, shot arrow after arrow, until he 
had expended eleven, in vain attempt to kill the manitoes. At the 
flight of each arrow, there was a long and solitary streak of lightning in 
the sky — then all was clear again, and not a cloud or spot could, be seen. 
The twelfth arrow he held a long time in his hands, and looked around 
keenly on every side to spy the manitoes he was after. But these mani- 
toes were very cunning, and could change their form in a moment. All 
they feared was the boy's arrows, for these were magic arrows, which 
had been given to him by a good spirit, and had power to kill them, if 
aimed aright. At length, the boy drew up his last arrow, settled in his 
aim, and let fly, as he thought, into the very heart of the chief of the 
manitoes ; but before the arrow reached him, he changed himself 
into a rock. Into this rock, the head of the arrow sank deep and stuck 
fast. 

" Now your gifts are all expended," cried the enraged manito, " and I 
will make an example of your audacity and pride of heart, for lifting 
your bow against me" — and so saying, he transformed the boy into the 
Nazhik-a-wa wa sun, or Lone Lightning, which may be observed in the 
northern sky, to this day. 



SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF 

lOTED RED MEI AID ¥OMEI 

WHO HAVE APPEARED ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT. 



CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE OGEE WYAN AKWUT OKWA; 
OR THE WOMAN OF THE BLUE-ROBED CLOUD, 

THE PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEGON. 

[These confessions of the Western Pythoness were made after she had relin- 
quished the prophetic office, discarded all the ceremonies of the Indian Meddwimnd 
Jesukeewin, and united herself to the Methodist Episcopal church, of which, up to 
our latest dates, she remained a consistent member. They are narrated in her own 
words.] 

When I was a girl of about twelve or thirteen years of age, my mother 
told me to look out for something that would happen to me. Accordingly, 
one morning early, in the middle of winter, I found an unusual sign, and 
ran off, as far from the lodge as I could, and remained there until my 
mother came and found me out. She knew what was the matter, and 
brought me nearer to the family lodge, and bade me help her in ma,king 
a small lodge of branches of the spruce tree. She told me to remain 
there, and keep away from every one, and as a diversion, to keep myself 
employed in chopping wood, and that she would bring me plenty of pre- 
pared bass wood bark to twist into twine. She told me she would come 
to see me, in two days, and that in the meantime I must not even taste 
snow. 

I did as directed ; at the end of two days she came to see me. I 
thought she would surely bring me something to eat, but to my disap- 
pointment she brought nothing. I suffered more from thirst, than hun- 
ger, though I felt my stomach gnawing. My mother sat quietly down 
and said (after ascertaining that I had not tasted anything, as she 
directed), " My child, you are the youngest of your sisters, and none are 
now left me of all my sons and children, but you /owr" (alluding to her 
two elder sisters, herself and a little son, still a mere lad). " Who," 
she continued, " will take care of us poor women ? Now, my daughter, 
listen to me, and try to obey. Blacken your face and fast really, that 
the Master of Life may have pity on you and me, and on us all. Do 
not, in the least, deviate from my counsels, and in two days more, I 

169 



170 ' THE PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEGON. 



will come to you. He will help you, if you are determined to do what 
is right, and tell me, whether you are favored or not, by the true Great 
Spirit ; and if your visions are not good, reject them." So saying, she 

departed. 

I took my little hatchet and cut plenty of wood, and twisted the cord 
that was to be used in sewing ap puk way oon un, or mats, for the use of 
the family. Gradually, I began to feel less appetite, but my thirst con- 
tinued ; still I was fearful of touching the snow to allay it, by sucking it, 
as my mother had told me that if I did so, though secretly, the Great 
Spirit would see me, and the lesser spirits also, and that my fasting 
would be of no use. So I continued to fast till the fourth day, when my 
mother came with a little tin dish, and filling it with snow, she came to 
my lodge, and was well pleased to find that I had followed her injunc- 
tions. She melted the snow, and told me to drink it. I did so, and 
felt refreshed, but had a desire for more, which she told me would 
not do, and I contented myself with what she had given me. She again 
told me to get and follow a goo(i vision — a vision that might not only do 
us good, but also benefit mankind, if I could. She then left me, and for 
two days she did not come near me, nor any human being, and I was 
left to my own reflections. The night of the sixth day, I fancied a voice 
called to me, and said : " Poor child ! I pity your condition ; come, you 
are invited this way and I thought the voice proceeded from a certain 
distance from my lodge. I obeyed the summons, and going to the spot 
from which the voice came, found a thin shining path, like a silver cord, 
which I followed. It led straight forward, and, it seemed, upward. 
No. 3. After going a short distance I stood still, and saw on my right 
hand the new moon, with a flame rising from the top like a candle, 
which threw around a broad light. No. 4. On the left appeared the 
sun, near the point of its setting. No. 11. I went on, and I beheld on 
my right the face of Kau ge gag be qua, or the everlasting woman, No. 
6, who told me her name, and said to me, " I give you my name, and 
you may give it to another. I also give you that which I have, life ever- 
lasting. I give you long life on the earth, and skill in saving life in 
others. Go, you are called on high." 

I went on, and saw a man standing with a large circular body, and 
rays from his head, like horns. No. 6. He said, " Fear not, my name is 
Monedo Wininees, or the Little man Spirit. I give this yame to your 
first son. It is my life. Go to the place you are called to visit." I fol- 
lowed the path till I could see that it led up to an opening in the sky, 
when I heard a voice, and standing still, saw the figure of a man standing 
near the path, whose head was surrounded with a brilliant halo, and his 
breast was covered with squares. No. 7. He said to me : " Look at 
me, my name is Shau wau e geeghicky or the Bright Blue Sky. I am 
the veil that covers the opening into the sky. Stand and listen to me. 



CONFESSIONS OP THE • 



171 



Bo not be afraid. I am going to endow you with gifts of life, and put 
you in array that you may withstand and endure." Immediately I saw 
myself encircled with bright points which rested against me like needles, 
but gave me no pain, and they fell at my feet. No. 9. This was repeat- 
ed several times, and at each time they fell to the ground. He said, 
" wait and do not fear, till I have said and done all I am about to do." 
I then felt different instruments, first like awls, and then like nails stuck 
into my flesh, but neither did they give me pain, but like the needles, fell 
at my feet, as often as they appeared. He then said, " that is good," 
meaning my trial by these points. You will see length of days. Ad- 
vance a little farther," said he. I did so, and stood at the commence- 
ment of the opening. " You have arrived," said he, " at the limityou can- 
not pass. I give you my name, you can give it to another. Now, re- 
turn ! Look around you. There is a conveyance for you. No. 10. Do not 
be afraid to get on its back, and when you get to your lodge, you must 
take that which sustains the human body." I turned, and saw a kind of 
fish swimming in the air, and getting upon it as directed, was carried 
back with celerity, my hair floating behind me in the air. And as soon 
as I got back, my vision ceased. 

In the morning, being the sixth day of my fast, my mother came with 
a little bit of dried trout. But such was my sensitiveness to all sounds, 
and my increased power of scent, produced by fasting, that before she 
came in sight I heard her, while a great way off, and when she came in, I 
could not bear the smell of the fish or herself either. She said, " I have 
brought something for you to eat, only a mouthful, to prevent your dy- 
ing." She prepared to cook it, but I said, " Mother, forbear, I do not 
wish to eat it — the smell is offensive to me."' She accordingly left ofl 
preparing to cook the fish, and again encouraged me to persevere, and try to 
become a comfort to her in her old age and bereaved state, and left me. 

I attempted to cut wood, as usual, but in the effort I fell back on th© 
snow, from weariness, and lay some time ; at last I made an effort and 
rose, and went to my lodge and lay down. I again saw the vision, and 
each person who had before spoken to me, and heard the promises of 
different kinds made to me, and the songs. I went the same path which 
I had pursued before, and met with the same reception. I also had 
another vision, or celestial visit, which I shall presently relate. My 
mother came again on the seventh day, and brought me some pounded 
corn boiled in snow water ^ for she said I must not drink water from lake 
or river. After taking it, I related my vision to her. She said it was 
good, and spoke to me to continue my fast three days longer. I did so ; 
at the end of which she took me home, and made a feast in honor of my 
success, and invited a great many guests. I was told to eat sparingly, 
and to take nothing too hearty or substantial ; but this was unnecessary, 
for my abstinence had made my senses so acute, that all animal food had 
a gross and disagreeable odor. 



172 



PROPHETESS OF CHEGOIMEGON. 



After the seventh day of my fast (she continued), while I was 
lying in my lodge, I saw a dark round object descending from the sky 
like a round stone, and enter my lodge. As it came near, I saw that 
it had small feet and hands like a human body. It spoke to me and said, 
" I give you the gift of seeing into futurity, that you may use it, for the 
benefit of yourself and the Indians — your relations and tribes-people." 
It then departed, but as it went away, it assumed wings, and looked to 
me like the red-headed woodpecker. 

In consequence of being thus favored, I assumed the arts of a medicine 
woman and a prophetess ; but never those of a Wabeno. The first 
time I exercised the prophetical art, was at the strong and repeated soli- 
citations of my friends. It was in the winter season, and they were then 
encamped west of the Wisacoda, or Brule river of Lake Superior, and 
between it and the plains west. There were, besides my mother's 
family and relatives, a considerable number of families. They had 
been some time at the place, and were near starving, as they could find 
no game. One evening the chief of the party came into my mother's 
lodge. I had lain down, and was supposed to be asleep, and he request- 
ed of my mother that she would allow me to try my skill to relieve them. 
My mother spoke to me, and after som.e conversation, she gave her con- 
sent. I told them to build the Jee suk aun^ or prophet's lodge, strongj 
and gave particular directions for it. 1 directed that it should consist of 
ten posts or saplings, each of a different kind of wood, which I named. 
When it was finished, and tightly wound with skins, the entire population 
of the encampment assembled around it and I went in, taking only a 
small drum. I immediately knelt down, and holding my head near the 
ground, in a position as near as may be prostrate, began beating my 
drum, and recitino; my songs or incantations. The lodge commenced 
shaking violently, by supernatural means. I knew this, by the com- 
pressed current of air above, and the noise of motion. This being regard- 
ed by me, and by all without, as a proof of the presence of the spirits I 
consulted, I ceased beating and singing, and lay still, waiting for questions, 
in the position I had at first assumed. 

The first question put to me, was in relation to the game, and where 
it was to be found. The response was given by the orbicular spirit, 
who had appeared to me. He said, " How short-sighted you are ! 
If you v,'ill go in a west direction, you will find game in abundance." 
Next day the camp was broken up, and they all moved westward, the 
hunters, as usual, going far ahead. They had not proceeded far beyond 
the bounds of their former hunting circle, when they came upon tracks 
of moose, and that day, they killed a female and two young moose, 
nearlv full-grown. They pitched their encampment anew, and had 
abundance of animal food in this new positior. 

My reputation was established by this success, and I W£^ after- 



THE PROPHETESS OP CHEGOIMEGON. 



173 



wares noted in the tribe, in the art of a medicine woman, and sung 
the songs which I have given to you. About four years after, I was 
married to Mush Kow Egeezhick, or the Strong Sky, who was a 
very active and successful hunter, and kept his lodge well supplied 
with food ; and we lived happy. After I had had two children, a girl 
and a boy, we went out, as is the custom of the Indians in the spring, to 
visit the white settlements. One night, while we were encamped at the 
head of the portage at Pauwating (the Falls of St. Mary's), angry words 
passed between my husband and a half Frenchman named Gaultier, who, 
with his two cousins, in the course of the dispute, drew their knives and a 
tomahawk, and stabbed and cut him in four or five places, in his body, head 
and thighs. This happened the first year that the Americans came to 
that place (1822). He had gone out at a late hour in the evening, to 
visit the tent of Gaultier. Having been urged by one of the trader's 
men to take liquor that evening, and it being already late, I desired him 
not to go, but to defer his visit till next day ; and after he had left the 
lodge, I felt a sudden presentiment of evil, and I went after him, and re 
newed my efibrts in vain. He told me to return, and as I had two chil 
dren in the lodge, the youngest of whom, a boy, was still in his cradle, 
and then ill, I sat up with him late, and waited and waited, till a late 
hour, and then fell asleep from exhaustion. I slept very sound. The 
first I knew, was a violent shaking from a girl, a niece of Gaultier's, 
who told me my husband and Gaultier were all t^he time quarrelling. I 
arose, and went up the stream to Gaultier's camp fire. It was nearly 
out, and I tried in vain to make it blaze. I looked into his tent, but all 
was dark and not a soul there. They had suddenly fled, although I did 
not at the moment know the cause. I tried to make a light to find my 
husband, but could find nothing dry, for it had rained very hard the day 
before., After being out a while my vision became clearer, and turning 
toward the river side, I saw a dark object lying near the shore, on a 
grass}^ opening. I was attracted by something glistening, which turned 
out to be his ear-rings. I thought he was asleep, and in stooping to 
awake him, I slipped and fell on my knees. I had slipped in his blood 
on the grass, and putting my hand on his face, found him dead. In the 
morning the Indian agent came with soldiers from the fort, to see what 
had happened, but the murderer and all his bloody gang of relatives had 
fled. The agent gave orders to have the body buried in the old Indian 
burial ground, below the Falls. 

My aged mother was encamped about a mile off, at this time. I took 
my two children in the morning, and fled to her lodge. She had just 
heard of the murder, and was crying as I entered. I reminded her that 
it was an act of providence, to which we must submit. She said it was 
for me and my poor helpless children that she was crying — that I was 
left as she had been, years before, with nobody to provide for us* 



174 



RULING CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS. 



With her I returned to my native country at Chegoimegon on Lake 
Superior. 

Thus far, her own narrative. We hope, in a future number, to give 
further particulars of her varied, and rather eventful life ; together with 
specimens of her medicine, and prophetic songs. 



RULING CHIEF OF THE MIAMIS. 

Died, on the 13th inst. (August, 1841), at his residence on the St 
Mary's, four and a half miles south-west of this city, John B. Richardville, 
principal chief of the Miami nation of Indians, aged about eighty years. 

Chief Richardville, or " Piskewah?'^ (which is an Indian name, mean- 
ing in English " wild-cat"), was born on the point across the Maumee 
river, opposite this city, under or near a large apple tree, on the farm of 
the late Colonel Coles ; and at a very early age, by succession, became 
the chief of the tribe, his mother being chieftainess at the time of his 
birth. His situation soon brought him in contact with the whites, and he 
was in several engagements, the most important of which was the cele- 
brated slaughter on the St. Joseph River, one mile north of this city, 
designated as " Harmar's Defeat," where several hundred whites, under 
General Harmar, were cut off in attempting to ford the river, by the In- 
dians, who lay in ambush on the opposite shore, by firing upon the 
whites when in the act of crossing ; which slaughter crimsoned the river 
a number of days for several miles below with the blood of the un- 
fortunate victims. 

The Chief is universally spoken of as having been kind and humane to 
prisoners — far more so than most of his race ; and as soon as peace was 
restored, became a worthy citizen, and enjoyed the confidence of the 
whites to the fullest extent. He spoke good French and English, as 
well as his native tongue ; and for many years his house, which is pleas- 
antly situated on the banks of the St. Mary's, and which was always 
open for the reception of friends — was a place of resort for parties of 
pleasure, who always partook of the hospitality of his house. 

The old man was strictly honest, but remarkably watchful of his in- 
terest, and amassed a fortune exceeding probably a million of dollars, 
consisting of nearly $200,000 in specie on hand, and the balance in the 
most valuable kind of real estate, which he has distributed by wilP^ 
among his numerous relations with " even-handed justice." He had 
always expressed a great anxiety to live, but when he became conscious 
that the time of his departure was near at hand, he resigned himself with 
perfect composure, saying that it was ordered that all must die, and he 
was then ready and willing to answer the call of the " Great Spirit." 
His remains were deposited in the Catholic burying-ground with reli^- 
giou? ceremonies. — Fort Wayne (Ind.) Saitinel. 



THE MAGICIAN OF LAKE HURON. 



JiN OTXOWA TALE RELATED BY NABUNWA IN THE INDIAN TONGUE, TO MR. 

GEORGE JOHNSTON. 

At the time that the Ottowas inhabited the Manatohne Islands, 
in Lake Huron, there was a famous magician living amongst them whose 
name was Masswaweinini, or the Living Statue. It happened, by the 
fortune of war, that the Ottowa tribe were driven off that chain of 
islands by the Iroquois, and obliged to flee away to the country lying 
between Lake Superior and the Upper Mississippi, to the banks of a 
lake which is still called, by the French, and in memory of this migra- 
tion, Lac Courioriellej or the lake of the Cut-ears, a term which is their 
nom de guerre for this tribe. But the magician Masswaweinini re- 
mained behind on the wide-stretching and picturesque Manatoulins, a 
group of islands which had been deemed, from the earliest times, a fa- 
vorite residence of the manitoes or spirits. His object was to act as a 
sentinel to his countrymen, and keep a close watch on their enemies, the 
Iroquois, that he might give timely information of their movements. 
He had v/ith him two boys ; with their aid he paddled stealthily around 
the shores, kept himself secreted in nooks and bays, and hauled up his 
canoe every night, into thick woods, and carefully obliterated his tracks 
upon the sand. 

One day he rose very early, and started on a hunting excursion, leav- 
ing the boys asleep, and limiting himself to the thick woods, lest he 
should be discovered. At length he came unexpectedly to the borders 
of an extensive open plain. After gazing around him, and seeing no 
one, he directed his steps across it, intending to strike the opposite side 
of it ; while travelling, he discovered a man of small stature, who ap- 
peared suddenly on the plain before him, and advanced to meet him. 
He wore a red feather on his head, and coming up with a familiar air, 
accosted Masswaweinini by name, aiw said gaily, " Where are you 
going ?" He then took out his smoking apparatus, and invited him to 
smoke. " Pray," said he, while thus engaged, " wherein does your 
strength he." " My strength," answered Masswaweinini, " is similar 
to the human race, and common to the strength given to them, and no 
stronger." " We must wrestle," said the man of the red feather. " If 
you should make me fall, you will say to me, I have thrown you, Wa 
cje me naV 

As soon as they had finished smoking and put up their pipe, the wrest- 
ling began. For a long time the strife was doubtful. The strength of 

175 



176 



TALES OP A WIGWAM. 



Masswaweinini was every moment growing fainter. The man of the red 
feather, though small of stature, proved himself very active, but at 
length he was foiled and thrown to the ground. Immediately his adver- 
sary cried out, " I have thrown you. : wa ge me na and in an instant 
his antagonist had vanished. On looking to the spot where he had fallen, ^ 
he discovered a crooked ear of mondamin^ or Indian corn, lying on the 
ground, with the usual red hairy tassel at the top. While he was gaz- 
ing at this strange sight, and wondering what it could mean, a voice ad- 
dressed him from the ground. " Now," said the speaking ear, for the 
voice came from it, " divest me of my covering — leave nothing to hide 
mj body from your eyes. You must then separate me into parts, pull- 
ing off my body from the spine upon which I grow. Throw me into 
different parts of the plain. Then break my spine and scatter it in sm^U 
pieces near the edge of the woods, and return to visit the place, after 
one moon.^^ 

Masswaweinini obeyed these directions, and immediately set out on his 
return to his lodge. On the way he killed a deer, and on reaching his 
canoe, he found the boys still asleep. He awoke them and told them to 
cook his venison, but he carefully concealed from them his adventure. 
At the expiration of the moon he again, alone, visited his wrestling 
ground, and to his surprise, found the plain filled with the spikes and 
blades of new grown corn. In the place where he had thrown the pieces 
of cob, he found pumpkin vines growing in great luxuriance. He con- 
cealed this discovery also, carefully from the young lads, and after his 
return busied himself as usual, in watching the movements of his enemies 
along the coasts of the island. This he continued, till summer drew 
near its close. He then directed his canoe to the coast of that part 
of the island where he had wrestled with the Red Plume, drew up his 
canoe, bid the lads stay by it, and again visited his wrestling ground. 
He found the corn in full ear, and pumpkins of an immense size. He 
plucked ears of corn, and gathered some of the pumpkins, when a voice 
again addressed him from the cornfield. " Masswaweinini, you have 
conquered me. Had you not done so, your existence would have been 
forfeited. Victory has crowned your strength, and from henceforth you 
shall never be in want of my body. It will be nourishment for the hu- 
man race." Thus his ancestors received the gift of corn. 

Masswaweinini now returned to his canoe, and informed the young 
men of his discovery, and showed them specimens. They were aston- 
ished and delighted with the novelty. 

There were, in those days, many wonderful things done on these 
islands. One night, while Masswaweinini was lying down, he heard 
voices speaking, but he still kept his head covered, as if he had not 
heard them. One voice said, " This is Masswaweinini, and we must get 
his heart." " In what way can we get it .?" said another voice, " You 



TALES OF A WIGWAM. 



177 



must put your hand in his mouth," replied the first voice, " and draw it 
out that way." Masswaweinini still kept quiet, and did not stir. He 
soon felt the hand of a person thrust in his mouth. When sufficiently 
far in, he bit off the fingers, and thus escaped the danger. The voices 
then retired, and he was no further molested. On examining the fingers 
in the morning, what was his surprise to find them long wampum beads, 
which are held in such high estimation by all the Indian tribes. He had 
slept, as was his custom, in the thick woods. On going out to the open 
shore, at a very early hour, he saw a canoe at a small distance, tempora- 
rily drawn up on the beach ; on coming closer, he found a man in the 
bows and another in the stern, with their arms and hands extended in a 
fixed position. One of them had lost its fingers : it was evidently the 
man who had attempted to thrust his arm down his throat. They were 
two Pukwudjininees, or fairies. But on looking closer, they were found 
to be transformed into statues of stone. He took these stone images on 
shore, and set them up in the woods. 

Their canoe was one of the most beautiful structures which it is possi- 
ble to imagine, four fathoms in length, and filled with bags of treasures 
of every description and of the most exquisite workmanship. These 
bags were of different weight, according to their contents. He busied 
himself in quickly carrying them into the woods, together with the canoe, 
which he concealed in a cave. One of the fairy images then spoke to 
him and said : " In this manner, the Ottowa canoes will hereafter be 
loaded, when they pass along this coast, although your nation are driven 
away by their cruel enemies the Iroquois." The day now began to dawn 
fully, when he returned to his two young companions, who were still 
asleep. He awoke them, and exultingly bid them cook, for he had 
brought abundance of meat and fish, and other viands, the gifts of the 
fairies. 

After this display of good fortune, he bethought him of his aged father 
and mother, who were in exile at the Ottowa lake. To wish, and to 
accomplish his wish, were but the work of an instant with Mass- 
waweinini. 

One night as he lay awake, reflecting on their condition, far away 
from their native fields, and in exile, 2ie resolved to visit them, and 
bring them back to behold and to participate in his abundance. To 
a common traveller, it would be a journey of twenty or thirty days, 
but Masswaweinini was at their lodge before daylight. He found them 
asleep, and took them up softly in his arms and flew away with them 
through the air, and brought them to his camp on the Manatolines, or 
Spirit's Islands. When they awoke, their astonishment was at its high- 
est pitch ; and was only equalled by their delight in finding themselves 
in their son's lodge, in their native country, and surrounded with abun- 
dance. 



178 



TALES OF A WIGWAM. 



Masswaweinini went and built them a lodge, near the corn and wrest- 
ling plain. He then plucked some ears of the corn, and taking some of 
the pumpkins, brought them to his father and mother. He then told 
them how he had obtained the precious gift, by wrestling with a spirit in 
red plumes, and that there was a great abundance of it in his fields. He 
also told them of the precious canoe of the fairies, loaded with sacks of 
the most costly and valuable articles. But one thing seemed necessary 
to complete the happiness of his father, which he observed by seeing 
him repeatedly at night looking into his smoking pouch. He compre- 
hended his meaning in a moment. " It is tobacco, my father, that you 
want. You shall also have this comfort in two days." " But where," 
replied the old man, " can you get it — away from all supplies, and sur- 
rounded by your enemies " My enemies," he answered, " shall sup- 
ply it — I will go over to the Nadowas of the Bear totem, living at 
Penetanguishine . " 

The old man endeavored to dissuade him from the journey, knowing 
their blood-thirsty character, but in vain. Masswaweinini determined 
immediately to go. It was now winter weather, the lake was frozen 
over, but he set out on the ice, and although it is forty leagues, he reach- 
ed Penetanguishine the same evening. The Nadowas discerned him 
coming — they were amazed at the swiftness of his motions, and thinking 
him somewhat supernatural, feared him, and invited him to rest in their 
lodges, but he thanked them, saying that he preferred making a fire 
near the shore. In the evening they visited him, and were anxious to 
know the object of his journey, at so inclement a season. He said it was 
merely to get some tobacco for his father. They immediately made a 
contribution of the article and gave it to him. During the night they 
however laid a plot to kill him. Some of the old men rushed into his 
lodge, their leader crying out to him, " You are a dead man." " No, I 
am not," said Masswaweinini, but you are," accompanying his words 
with a blow of his tomahawk, which laid the Nadowa dead at his feet. 
Another and another came, to supply the place of their fallen comrade, but 
he despatched them in like manner, as quickly as they came, until he had 
killed six. He then took all the tobacco from their smoking pouches. 
By this time, the day began to dawn, when he set out for his father's 
lodge,, which he reached with incredible speed, and before twilight, 
spread out his trophies before the old man. 

When spring returned, his cornfield grew up, without planting, or 
any care on his part, and thus the maize was introduced among his 
people and their descendants, who have ever been noted, and are at this 
day, for their fine crops of this grain, and their industry in its cultiva- 
tion. It is from their custom of trading in this article, that this tribe are 
called Ottowas. 



■ J 

CORN-PLANTING, AND ITS INCIDENTS, 

The zea, mais, originally furnished the principal article of suhsistence 
among all the tribes of this race, north and south. It laid at the founda- 
tion of the Mexican and Peruvian types of civilization, as well as the in- 
cipient gieamings of it, among the more warlike tribes of the Iroquois, 
Natchez, Lenapees, and others, of northern latitudes. They esteem it so 
important and divine a grain, that their story-tellers invented various tales, 
in which this idea is symbolized under the form of a special gift from the 
Great Spirit. The Odjibwa-Algonquins, who call it Mon-da-min, that is, 
the Spirit's grain or berry, have a pretty story of this kind, in which the 
stalk in full tassel, is represented as descending from the sky, under the 
guise of a handsome youth, in answer to the prayers ot a young man at 
his fast of virility, or coming to manhood. 

It is well known that corn-planting, and corn-gathering, at least among 
all the still uncolonized tribes, are left entirely to the females and children, 
and a few superannuated old men. It is not generally known, perhaps, 
that this labour is not compulsory, and that it is assumed by the females 
as a just equivalent, in their view, for the onerous and continuous labour 
of the other sex, in providing meats, and skins for clothing, by the chase, 
and in defending their villages against their enemies, and keeping intruders 
off their territories. A good Indian housewife deems itiis a part of her 
prerogative, and prides herself to have a store of corn to exercise her hos- 
pitality, or duly honour her husband's hospitality, in the entertainment of 
the lodge guests. 

The area of ground planted is not. comparitively, large. This matter 
is essentially regulated by the number of the family, and other circum- 
stances. Spring is a leisure season with them, and by its genial and re- 
viving influence, invites to labour. An Indian female has no cows 
to milk, no flax to spin, no yarn to reel. Even those labours, which, at 
other seasons fall to her share, are now intermitted. She has apukwas to 
gather to make mats. Sugar-making has ended. She has no skins to 
dress, for the hunt has ended, the animals being out of season. It is at 
this time that the pelt grows bad, the hair becomes loose and falls off, and 
nature itself teaches the hunter, that the species must have repose, and be 
allowed a iistle time to replenish. Under these circumstances the mistress 

1^9 



X80 CORN, PLANTING, AND ITS INCIDENTS. 



of the lodge and her train, sally out of the lodge into the corn-field, and 
with the light pemidge-ag akwut, or small hoe, open up the soft ground 
and deposit their treasured mondamin. 

The Indian is emphatically a superstitious being, believing in all sorts 
of magical, and secret, and wonderful influences. Woman, herself, comes 
in for no small share of these supposed influences. I shrewdly suspect 
that one half of the credit we have been in the habit of giving the war- 
rior, on the score of virtue, in his treatment of captives, is due alone to his 
superstitions. He is afraid, at all times, to spoil his luck, cross his fate, 
and do some untoward act, by which he might, perchance, fall under a 
bad spiritual influence. 

To the wewun, or wife — the equa, or woman, to the guh or mother, — 
to the equazas, or girl, and to the danis, or daughter, and shema, or 
sister, he looks, as wielding, in their several capacities, whether kindred 
or not, these mystic influences over his luck. In consequence of this, the 
female never walks in the path before him. It is an unpropitious sign. If 
she cross his track, when he is about to set out on a hunting, or war. ex- 
cursion, his luck is gone. If she is ill, from natural causes, she cannot 
even stay in the same wigwam. She cannot use a cup or a bowl without 
rendering it, in his view, unclean. 

A singular proof of this belief, in both sexes, of the mysterious influence 
of the steps of a woman on the vegetable and insect creation, is found in an 
ancient custom, which was related to me, respecting corn-planting. It 
was the practice of the hunter's wife, when the field of corn had been 
planted, to choose the first dark or overclouded evening, to perform a 
secret circuit, sans habilement, around the field. For this purpose she 
slipt out of the lodge in the evening, unobserved, to some obscure nook, 
where she completely disrobed. Then taking her matchecota, or princi- 
pal garment in one hand, she dragged it around the field. This wa& 
thought to ensure a prolific crop, and to prevent the assaults of insects and 
worms upon the grain. It was supposed they could not creep over the 
charmed line. 

But if corn-planting be done in a lively and satisfied, and not a slavish 
spirit, corn-gathering and husking is a season of decided thankfulness and 
merriment. At these gatherings, the chiefs and old men are mere specta- 
tors, although they are pleased spectators, the young only sharing in the 
sport. Who has not seen, the sedate ogema in such a vicinage, smoking 
a dignified pipe with senatorial ease. On the other hand, turning to the 
group of nature's red daughters and their young cohorts, it may be safe- 
ly affirmed that laughter and garrulity constitute no part of the character- 
istics of civilization. Whatever else custom has bound fast, in the do- 
mestic female circle of forest life, the tongue is left loose. Nor does it re- 
quire, our observation leads us to think, one tenth part of the wit or 
drollery of ancient Athens, to set their risible faculties in motion. 



If one of the young female huskers finds a red ear of corn, it is typical 
of a brave admirer, and is regarded as a fitting present to some young 
warrior. But if the ear be crooked, and tapering to a point, no matter what 
colour, the whole circle is set in a roar, and iva ge min is the word shouted 
aloud. It is the symbol of a thief in the cornfield. It is considered as the 
image of an old man stooping as he enters the lot. Had the chisel 
of Praxitiles been employed to produce this image, it could not more vi- 
vidly bring to the minds of the merry group, the idea of a pilferer of their 
favourite mondamin. Nor is there any doubt on these occasions, that the 
occurrence truly reveals the fact that the cornfield has actually been thus 
depredated on. 

The term wagemin, which unfolds all these ideas, and reveals, as by a 
talisman, all this information, is derived in part, from the tri-literal term 
Waweau, that which is bent or crooked. The termination in g, is the 
animate plural, and denotes not only that there is more than one object, 
but that the subject is noble or invested with the importance of animated 
beings. The last member of the compound, min, is a shortened sound 
of the generic meen, a grain, or berry. To make these coalesce, agreea- 
bly to the native laws of euphony, the short vowel i, is thrown in, between 
the verbal root and substantive, as a connective. The literal meaning of 
the term is, a mass, or crooked ear of grain ; but the ear of corn so called, 
is a conventional type of a little old man pilfering ears of corn in a corn- 
field. It is in this manner, that a single word or term, in these curious 
languages, becomes the fruitful parent of many ideas. And we can thus 
perceive* why it is that the word wagemin is alone competent to excite 
merriment in the husking circle. 

This term is taken as the basis of the cereal chorus or corn song, as 
sung by the northern Algonquin tribes. It is coupled with the phrase 
Paimosaid, — a permutative form of the Indian substantive made from the 
verb, pim-o-sa, to walk. Its literal meaning is, he who walks, or the 
walker ; but the ideas conveyed by it, are, he who walks at night to pilfer 
corn. It offers, therefore, a kind of parallelism in expression, to the pre- 
ceding term. The chorus is entirely composed of these two terms, vari- 
ously repeated, and may be set down as follows : 

Wagemin, 
Wagemin, 
Paimosaid. 
Wagemin, 
Wagemin, 
Paimosaid. 

181 . 



182 



CORN PLANTING AND ITS INCIDENTS. 



When this chant has been sung, there is a pause, during which some 
one who is expert in these things, and has a turn for the comic or ironic, 
utters a short speech, in the manner of a recitative, in which a peculiar in- 
tonation is given, and generally interrogates the supposed pilferer, as if he 
were present to answer questions, or accusations. There can be no pre- 
tence, that this recitative part of the song is always the same, at different 
times and places, or even that the same person should not vary his phrase- 
ology. X)n the contrary, it is often an object to vary it. It is a perfect 
improvisation, and it may be supposed that the native composer is always 
actuated by a desire to please, as much as possible by novelty. The 
whole object indeed is, to keep up the existing merriment, and excite fun 
and laughter. 

The following may be taken as one of these recitative songs, written out, 
on the plan of preserving the train of thought, and some of those peculiar 
interjections in which these languages so much abound. The chorus 
alone, it is to be observed, is fixed in its words and metr°, however trans- 
posed or repeated, and, unlike an English song, precet'"*^ the stanza or 
narrative. 

CORN SONG. 

Cereal chorus. Wagemin ! wagemin ! 

Thief in the blade, 
Blight of the cornfield 
Paimosaid. 

Recitative. See you not traces, while pulling the leaf, 
Plainly depicting the takepu and thief? 
See you not signs by the ring and the spot. 
How the man crouched as he crept in the lot a 
Is it not plain by this mark on the stalk, 
That he was heavily bent in his walk? 
Old man be nimble ! the old should be good, 
But thou art a cowardly thief of the wood. 

Cereal Chorus. Wagemin ! wagemin ! 

Thief in the blade, 
Blight of the cornfield 
Paimosaid. 

Recitative, Where, little taicer of things not your own — 

Where is your rattle, your drum, and your bone? 
Surely a Walker so nimble of speed, 
Surely he must be a Meta* indeed. 



* A Juggler. 



CORN PLANTING AND ITS INCIDENTS. 



See how he stoops, as he breaks oiF the ear, 
Nushka !* he seems for a moment m fear ; 
Walker, be nimble — oh ! walker be brief, 
Hooh If it is plain the old man is the thief 

Cereal chorus. Wagemin ! wagemin ! 

Thief in the blade. 
Blight of the corn^eld 
Paimosaid. 

Recitative. Wabuma !| corn-taker, why do you lag? 

None but the stars see you — fill up your bag } 

Why do you linger to gaze as you pull, 

Tell me, my little man, is it most full ? 

A-tia ! § see, a red spot on the leaf, 

Surely a warrior cannot be a thief ! 

Ah, little night-thief, be deer your pursuit, 

And leave here no print of your dastardly foot. 



TO HEALTH. 

BY THE LATE JOHN JOHNSTON, ESQ. 

Health ! dearest of the heavenly powers, 
With thee to pass my evening hours. 

Ah ! deign to hear my prayer ; 
For what can wealth or beauty give. 
If still in anguish doomed to live 

A slave to pain and care. 

Not sovereign power, nor charms of lovCj 
Nor social joys the heart can move. 

If thou refuse tli}^ aid ; 
E'en friendship, sympathy divine f 
Does, in thy absence, faintly shine. 

Thou all-inspiring maid. 

Return then, to my longing soul, 
Which sighs to feel thy sweet control 
Transfused through every pore ; 
My muse, enraptured, then shall sing 
Thee — gift of heaven's all bounteous king, 
And gratefully adore. 
February 4, 1807. 

* A sharp exclamation quickly to behold something striking. 

t A derogatory exclamation. t Behold thou. 

§ A mascuhne exclamation, to express surprise 



184 



DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL 



DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL MANNERS OF THE INDIANS, 
WHILE ON THEIR WINTERING GROUNDS. 

The Indian, who takes his position as an orator, in front of his people, 
and before a mixed assemblage of white men, is to be regarded, in a 
measure, as an actor, who has assumed a part to perform. He regards 
himself as occupying a position in which all eyes are directed upon him, 
in scrutiny, and he fortifies himself for the occasion, by redoubled 
efforts in cautiousness and studied stoicism. Rigid of muscle, and 
suspicious of mind by nature, he brings to his aid the advantages of 
practised art, to bear him out in speaking for his tribe, and to quit him 
manfully of his task by uttering sentiments worthy of them and of him- 
self. This is the statue-like and artistic phasis of the man. It is here 
that he is, truly 

" A man without a fear — a stoic of the wood." 

All this is laid aside, so far as it is assumed, when he returns from the 
ptesence of the " pale-faces," and rejoins his friends and kindred, in his 
own village, far away from all public gaze, in the deep recesses of the 
forest. Let us follow the man to this retreat, and see what are his 
domestic manners, habits, amusements, and opinions. 

I have myself visited an Indian camp, in the far-off area of the North- 
west, in the dead of winter, under circumstances suited to allay his sus- 
picions, and inspire confidence, and have been struck with the marked 
change there is in his social temper, character, and feelings. And I have 
received the same testimony from Indian traders, who have spent years 
among them in these secluded positions, and been received by them as 
friends and kindred. All indeed, who have had frequent and full oppor- 
tunities of witnessing the red man on his hunting grounds, concur in 
bearing evidence to his social, hospitable, and friendly habits and man- 
ners. Viewed in such positions, the most perfect sincerity and cheer- 
fulness prevail ; and their intercourse is marked with the broadest princi- 
ples of charity and neighborly feeling. The restraint and ever watchful 
suspicion which they evince at the frontier post, or in other situations 
exposed to the scrutiny and cupidity of white men, is thrown aside and 
gives way to ease, sociability and pleasantry. They feel while thus 
ensconced in the shades of their native forests, a security unknown to 
their breasts in any other situations. The strife seems to be, who shall 
excel in offices of friendship and charity, or in spreading the festive 
board. If one is more fortunate than the other, in taking meat, or 
wielding the arrow or spear, the spoil is set apart for a feast, to which 



MANNERS OF THE INDIANS. 



185 



all the adults, without distinction, are invited. When the set time of 
the feast arrives, each one, according to ancient custom, takes his dish 
and spoon, and proceeds to the entertainer's lodge. The victuals are 
served up with scrupulous attention that each receives a portion of the 
best parts. While at the meal, which is prolonged by cheerful conver- 
sation, anecdote, and little narrations of personal adventure, the females 
are generally listeners ; and none, except the aged, ever obtrude a re- 
mark. The young women and girls show that they partake in the fes- 
tivity by smiles, and are scrupulous to evince their attention to the elder 
part of the company. Conversation is chiefly engrossed by the old men 
and chiefs, and middle-aged men. Young men, who are desirous to 
acquire a standing, seldom ofier a remark, and when they (Zo, it is with 
modesty. The topics discussed at these public meals relate generally 
to the chacBj to the news they have heard, or to personal occurrences 
about the village ; or to deeds, " real or fabulous," of " old lang syne 
but the matters are discussed in a lively, and not in a grave style. 
Business, if we may be allowed that term for what concerns their trade 
and government intercourse, is never introduced except in formal coun- 
cils, convened specially, and opened formally by smoking the pipe. It 
seems to be the drift of conversation, in these sober festivities (for it 
must be recollected that we are speaking of the Indians on their winter- 
ing grounds and beyond the reach, certainly beyond the free or ordinary 
use of ardent spirits), to extract from their hunts and adventures, what- 
ever will admit of a pleasant turn, draw forth a joke, or excite a laugh. 
Ridiculous misadventures, or comical situations, are sure to be applauded 
in the recital. Whatever is anti-social, or untoward, is passed over, or 
if referred to by another, is parried off, by some allusion to the scene 
before them. 

Religion (we use this term for what concerns the great spirit, sacred 
dreams, and the ceremonies of the Meda or medicine dance), like busi- 
ness, is reserved for its proper occasion. It does not form, as with us, 
a free topic of remark, at least among those who are professors of the 
dance. Thus they cheat away the hours in pleasantry, free, but not 
tumultuous in their mirth, but as ardently bent on the enjoyment of 
the present moment, as if the sum of life were contained in these 
three words, " eat, drink, and be merry." When the feast is over, the 
women return to their lodges, and leave the men to smoke. On their 
return, they commence a conversation on what they have heard the 
men advance, and thus amuse themselves till their husbands return. 
The end of all is generally some good advice to the children. 

The company in these ordinary feasts is as general, with respect to 
the rank, age or standing of the guests, as the most unlimited equality 
of rights can make it. All the aged and many of the young are in- 
vited. There is, however, another feast instituted, at certain times 



186 



DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL 



during the season, tp which young persons only are icvited, or admitted, 
except the entertainer and his wife, and generally two other aged per- 
sons, who preside over the feast and administer its rites. The object of 
this feast seems to be instruction, to which the young and thoughtless 
are induced to listen for the anticipated pleasure of the feast. Before 
this feast commences, the entertainer, or some person fluent in speech, 
whom he has selected for the purpose, gets up and addresses the youth 
of both sexes on the subject of their course through life. He admo- 
nishes them to be attentive and respectful to the aged and to adhere to 
their counsels : never to scoff at the decrepid, deformed, or blind : to 
obey their parents : to be modest in their conduct : to be charitable and 
hospitable : to fear and love the great Spirit, who is the giver of life 
and every good gift. These precepts are dwelt upon at great length, 
and generally enforced by examples of a good man and woman and a 
bad man and woman, and after drawing the latter, it is ever the custom 
to say, " you will be like one of these." At the end of every sentence, 
the listeners make a general cry of had. When the advice is finished, 
an address, or kind of prayer to the great Spirit is made, in which he 
is thanked for the food before them, and for the continuance of life. 
The speaker then says, " Thus the great Spirit supplies us with food ; 
act justly, and conduct well, and you will ever be thus bountifully sup- 
plied." The feast then commences, and thea-elders relax their manner 
and mix with the rest, but are still careful to preserve order, and a de- 
cent, respectful behavior among the guests. 

Let it not be supposed, however, that the Indian's life, while on his 
wintering grounds, is a round of feasting. Quite the contrary ; and his 
feasts are often followed by long and painful fasts, and the severity of 
the seasons, and scarcity of game and fish, often reduce himself and 
family to the verge of starvation, and even death. When the failure of 
game, or any other causes, induce the hunter to remove to a new circle 
of country, the labor of the removal falls upon the female part of the 
family. The lodge, utensils and fixtures of every kind, are borne upon 
the women's backs, sustained by a strap of leather around the forehead. 
On reaching the intended place of encampment, the snow is cleared 
away, cedar branches brought and spread for a flooring, the lodge set up, 
the moveables stowed away, wood collected, and a fire built, and then, 
and not until then, can the females sit down and warm their feet and 
dry their moccasins. If there be any provisions, a supper is cooked. 
If there be none, all studiously strive to conceal the exhibition of the 
least concern on this account, and seek to divert their thoughts by con- 
versation quite foreign to the subject. The little children are the only 
part of the family who complain, and who are privileged to complain, 
but even they are taught at an early age to suffer and be silent. Gene- 
rally, something is reserved by the mother, when food becomes scarce, 



MANNERS OP THE INDIANS. 



187 



to satisfy their clamors, and they are satisfied with little. On such occa- 
sions, if the family have gone supperless to rest, the father and elder 
sons rise early in the morning in search of something. If one has the 
luck to kill even a partridge or a squirrel, it is immediately carried to 
the lodge, cooked, and divided into as many parts as there are members 
of the family. On these occasions, the elder ones often make a merit 
of relinquishing their portions to the women and children. If nothing 
rewards the search, the whole day is spent by the father upon his snow- 
shoes, with his gun in his hands, and he returns at night, fatigued, to his 
couch of cedar branches and rush mats. But he does not return to com- 
plain, either of his want of success, or his fatigue. On the following 
day the same routine is observed, and days and ^eeks are often thus 
consumed without being rewarded with anything capable of sustaining 
life. Instances have been well authenticated, when this state of wretch- 
edness has been endured by the head of a family until he has become so 
weak as to fall in his path, and freeze to death. When all other means 
of sustaining life are gone, the skins he has collected to pay his credits, 
or purchase new supplies of clothing or ammunition, are eaten. They 
are prepared by removing the pelt, and roasting the skin until it acquires 
a certain degree of crispness. Under all their sufferings, the pipe of 
the hunter is his chief solace, and is a solace often resorted to. Smoking 
parties are frequently formed, when there is a scarcity of food not tend- 
ing, as might be supposed, to destroy social feehng and render the 
temper sour. On these occasions the entertainer sends a message to 
this effect : " Come and smoke with me. I have no food ; but we can 
pass away the evening very well without it." All acknowledge their 
lives to be in the hand of the great Spirit ; feel a conviction that all 
comes from him, and that although he allows them to suffer, he will again 
supply them. This tends to quiet their apprehensions ; they are fatal- 
ists, however, under long reverses, and submit patiently and silently to 
what they believe to be their destiny. When hunger and misery are 
past, they are soon forgotten, and their minds are too eagerly intent on 
the enjoyment of the present good, to feel any depression of spirits from 
the recollection of the past, or to hoard up anything to provide against 
want for the future. No people are more easy, or less clamorous under 
sufferings of the deepest dye, and none more happ}^, or more prone to 
evince their happiness, when prosperous in their affairs. 
October 29th, 1826. 



PUGASAING; 



1 



OR, 



THE GAME OF THE BOWL. 

This is the principal game of hazard among the northern tribes. It is 
played with thirteen pieces, hustled in a vessel called onagun, which is a 
kind of wooden bowl. They are represented, and named, as follows. 




TTL. 




The pieces marked No. 1, in this cut, of which there are two, are called 
Ininewug, or men. They are made tapering, or wedge-shaped in thick- 
ness, so as to make it possible, in throwing them, that they may stand on 
their base. Number 2, is called Gitshee Kenabik, or the Great Serpent. 
It consists of two pieces, one of which is fin-tailed, or a water-serpent, the 

188 



PUGASAING. 



189 



other truncated, and is probably designed as terrestrial. They are formed 
wedge-shaped, so as to be capable of standing on their bases length-wise. 
Each has four dots. Number 3. is called Pugamagun, or the war club. 
It has six marks on the handle, on the red side^ and four radiating from 
the orifice of the club end ; and four marks on the handle of the lohite side ; 
and six radiating marks from the orifice on the club-end, making ten on. 
each side. Number 4 is called Keego, which is the generic name for a 
fish. The four circular pieces of brass, slightl}'- concave, with a flat sur- 
face on the apex, are called Ozawabiks. The three bird-shaped pieces, 
Sheshebwug, or ducks. 

All but the circular pieces are made out of a fine kind of bone. One 
side of the piece is white, of the natural colour of the bones, and polished, 
the other red. The brass pieces have the convex side bright, the concave 
black. They are all shaken together, and thrown out of the onagun, as 
dice. The term pugasaing denotes this act of throwing. It is the parti- 
cipial form of the verb. — The following rules govern the game : 

1. When the pieces are turned on the red side, and one of the Inine- 
wugs stands upright on the bright side of one of the brass peces, it 
counts 158. 

2. When all the pieces turn red side up, and the Gitshee Kenabik 
with the tail stands on the bright side of the brass piece, it counts 138. 

3. When all turn up red, it counts 58 whether the brass pieces be bright 
or black side up. 

4. When the Gitshee Kenabik and his associate, and the two Ininewugs 
turn up white side, and the other pieces red, it counts 58, irrespective of 
the concave or convex position of the brass pieces. 

5. When all the pieces turn up white, it counts 38, whether the Ozawa- 
biks, be bright or black. 

6. When the Gitshee Kenabik and his associate turn up red, and the 
other wnite, it counts 38, the brass pieces immaterial. 

7. When one of the Ininewugs stands up, it counts 50, without regard 
to the position of all the rest 

8. When either of the Gitshee Kenabiks stands upright, it counts 40, 
irrespective of the position of the others. 

9. When all the pieces turn up white, excepting one, and the Ozawabiks 
dark, it counts 20. 

10. When all turn up red, except one, and the brass pieces bright, it 
counts 15. 

11. When the whole of the pieces turn up white, but one, with the 
Ozawabiks bright, it counts 10. 

12. When a brass piece turns up dark, the two Gitshee Kenabiks and 
the two men red, and the remaining pieces white, it counts 8. 

13 When the brass piece turns up bright, the two Gitshee Kenabiks 
and one of the men red, and all the rest white, it is 6. 



190 



PUGASAINGi 



14. When the Gitshee Kenabik in chief, and one of the men turn up 
red, the Ozawabiks, bright, and all the others white, it is 4. 

15. When both the Kenabiks, and both men, and the three ducks, turn 
up red, the brass piece black, and either the Keego, or a duck white, 
it is 5. 

16. When all the pieces turn up red, but one of the Ininewugs, and the 
brass piece black, it counts 2. 

The limit of the game is stipulated. The parties throw up for the 
play. 

This game is very fascinating to some portions of the Indians. They 
stake at it their ornaments, weapons, clothing, canoes, horses, every thing 
in fact they possess ; and have been known, it is said, to set up their wives 
and children, and even to forfeit their own liberty. Of such desperate 
stakes, I have seen no examples, nor do I think the game itself in com- 
mon use. It is rather confined to certain persons, who hold the relative 
rank of gamblers in Indian society — men who are not noted as hunters or 
warriors, or steady providers for their families. Among these are per- 
sons who bear the term of lenadizze-wug, that is, wanderers about the 
country, braggadocios, or fops. It can hardly be classed with the popular 
games of amusement, by Avhich skill and dexterity are acquired. I have 
generally found the chiefs and graver men of the tribes, who encouraged 
the young men to play ball, and are sure to be present at the customary 
sports, to witness, and sanction, and applaud them, speak lightly and dis- 
paragingly of this game of hazard. Yet, it cannot be denied, that some 
of the chiefs, distinguished in war and the chase, at the west, can be refer - 
red to, as lending their example to its fascinating power. 

An analysis of this game, to show its arithmetical principles and powers 
might be gone into ; but it is no part of the present design to take up such 
considerations here, far less to pursue the comparison and extension of cus- 
toms of this kind among the modern M'-estern tribes. It may be sufficient 
to say, from the foregoing rules, that there seems to be no unit in the 
throw, and that the count proceeds by decimals, for all numbers over 8. 
Doubtless these rules, are but a part of the whole series, known to ex 
perienced players. They comprise, however, all that have been revealeu 
to me. 

" Gambling is not peculiar to our race, 
The Indian gambles with as fixed a face." 



Herodotus says of the ancient Thracians~~that " the most honourable 
life, with them, is a life of war and plunder ; the most contemptible that of 
a husbandman. Their supreme delight is war and plunder." Who might 
not suppose, were the name withheld, that this had been said by some 
modern writer of the Pawnees, or the Camanches ? 



REVERENCE AND AFFECTION FOR PARENTS. 



There lived a noted chief at Michilimackinac, in days past, called Gitshe 
Naygow, or the Great-Sand-Dime, a name, or rather nick-name, 
which he had, probably, derived from his birth and early residence at a 
spot of very imposing appearance, so called, on the southern shore of 
Lake Superior, which is east of the range of the Pictured Rocks. He 
was a Chippewa, a warrior and a counsellor, of that tribe, and had 
mingled freely in the stirring scenes of war and border foray, which 
marked the closing years of French domination in the Canadas. Fie 
lived to be very old, and became so feeble at last, that he coukl not 
travel by land, when Spring came on and his people prepared to move 
their lodges, from their sugar-camp in the forest', to the open lake shore. 
They were then inland, on the waters of the Manistee river, a stream 
which enters the northern shores of Lake Michigan. It was his last win- 
ter on earth; his heart was gladdened by once more feeling the ge- 
nial rays of Spring, and he desired to go with them, to behold, for the 
last time, the expanded lake and inhale its pure breezes. Fie must 
needs be conveyed by hand. This act of piety was performed by his 
daughter, then a young woman. She carried him on her back from 
their camp to the lake shore, where they erected their lodge and 
passed their spring, and where he eventually died and was buried. 

This relation I had from her own lips, at the agency of Michili- 
mackinac, in 1833. I asked her how she had carried him. She re- 
plied, with the Indian apekun, or head-strap. When tired she rested, and 
again pursued her way, on-wa-be-win by on-wa-be-win, or rest by rest, in 
the manner practised in carrying heavy packages over the portages. Her 
name was Nadowakwa, or the female Iroquois. She was then, perhaps, 
about fifty-five years of age, -and the wife of a chief called Saganosh, 
whose home and jurisdiction were in the group of the St. Martin's Islands, 
north of Michilimackinac. 

The incident was not voluntarily told, but came out, incidentally, in 
some inquiries I was making respecting historical events, in the vicinity. 
One such incident goes far to vindicate the affections of this people, 
and should teach us, that they are of the same general lineage with 
ourselves, and only require letters and Christianity, to exalt them in the 
scale of being. 



The first words of men, says Harris in his Hermes, hke their first ideas, 
had an immediate reference to sensible objects ; in after days, when they 
began to discern with their intellect, they took those words vi^hich they 
found already made, and transferred vhem by metaphor, to intellectual con- 
ceptions, 

1P1 



ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. 

Many persons among the Indian race, have attracted notice from their 
exploits on the war-path. Andaig Weos was not among the num- 
ber of these, or if he had mingled in such events, his deeds of daring 
are now lost amid the remembrance of better qualities. He was a chief ^ 
of the once prominent and reigning band of Odjibwa Algonquins, who 
are called Chippewas, located at Chegoimgon, on Lake Superior, where 
his name is cherished in local tradition, for the noble and disinterested 
deeds which he performed in former days. He lived in the latter part of 
the 18th century. 

It was perhaps forty years ago — said my informant, it was while the 
late Mr. Nolin, of Sault Ste. Maries was a trader in the Chippewa country, 
between lake Superior and the Mississippi, that he wintered one year low 
down on the Chippewa river. On his way down this stream, and while 
he was still on one of its sources, cold weather set in suddenly, the ice 
formed, and he was unable to get on with his goods. He consequently 
put them en cache^ according to the custom of the country, and proceeded 
on foot, with his men to the lower part of the river, to the spot at which 
he had determined to winter. Here he felled trees, and built his house, 
and having made ail things ready, he set out with his men on his return 
to his cache^ in order to bring down his goods. 

On the way he fell in with an Indian hunter and his wife, who followed 
him to the place where he had secreted his goods. On reaching this, he 
filled a bottle with spirits and gave a glass to each of his men, took one 
himself, and then filling the glass presented it to the Indian. This was 
done after the camp had been made for the night. It so happened that 
the Indian was taken suddenlj?- ill that night, and before day light died. 
Nolin and his men buried him, and then proceeded back to his wintering 
house below, each man carrying a pack of goods ; and the widow rejoined 
her friends. 

After the Indians had taken their credits, and dispersed to their several 
wintering grounds, it was rumoured amongst them, that the trader had 

192 



ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. 



193 



administered poison to the Indian who iied so suddenly after taking the 
glass of spirits. And this opinion gained ground, although the v/idow wo- 
man repeatedly told the Indians, that the liquor given to her deceased 
husband was from the same bottle and glass, that all the French people 
had drank from. But it was of no avail ; the rumour grew, and Mr. 
Nolin began to be apprehensive, as he had already learnt that the Indians 
meant to kill him. To confirm this suspicion a party of forty men, soon 
after, entered his house, all armed, painted black, and with war dresses 
on. They were all presented with a piece of tobacco, as was customary, 
when each of them threw it into the fire. No alternative now appeared 
to remain to avert the blow, Avhich he was convinced must soon folloAV. 
Almost at the same instant, his men intimated that another party, of six 
men more, were arriving. 

It proved to be the chief Andaig Weos, from near Lac du Flambeau, 
a search of a trader, for a supply of tobacco and ammunition. On entering, 
the chief eyed the warriors, and asked Mr. N. whether he had given them 
tobacco. He replied that he had, and that they had all, to a man, thrown 
it in the fire, and, he added, that they intended to kill him. The chief 
asked for some tobacco, which he threw down before the warriors, telling 
them to smoke it, adding in an authoritive voice, that when Indians visited 
traders, it was with an intention of getting tobacco from them to s?noke and 
and not to throw into the fire. ; and that, for his part, he had been a long 
time without smoking, and was very happy to find a trader to supply him 
with that article. This present from him, with the rebuke, was received 
with silent acquiescence, — no one venturing a reply. 

The chief next demanded liquor of the trader, saying, " that he in- 
tended to make them drink." The politic Frenchman remonstrated, 
saying, "that if this was done, he sho;ild surely he killed." "Fear not. 
Frenchman," replied the chief, boldly. " These are not m.c7i who want 
to kill you: they are children. I. and my warriors will guard you." On 
these assurances, a keg of liquor was given, but with the greatest reluc- 
tance. The chief immediately presented it to the war-party, but cautioned 
them to drink it at a distance, and not to come nigh the trader during the 
night. They obeyed him. They took it a short distance and drank it, 
and kept up a dreadful yelling- all night, but did not molest the house. 

The next morning Andaig Weos demanded tobacco of the still uneasy 
marchand voyageur^ and ordered one of his young men to distribute it to 
the Indians in the war-dress. He then rose and addressed them in an 
energetic and authoritative speech, telhngthemto march off, without tasting 
food; that they were warriors^ and needed not any thing of the kind; 
and if they did, they were hunters— they had guns, and might hunt, and 
kill and eat. " You get nothing more here," he added. " This trader 
has come here to supply your wants, and you seek to kill him — a poor re- 
ward for the trouble and the anxiety he has undergone ! This is no way^ 



]94 



ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. 



of requiting' white people." They all, to a man started, and went off, and 
gave the trader no farther molestation while he remained in the country. 

On another occasion Andaig Weos was placed in a situation which 
afforded a very difTerent species of testimony to his principles and integrity. 
A French trader had entered lake Superior so late in the season, that 
with every effort, he could get no farther than Pointe La Petite Fille, be- 
fore the ice arrested his progress. Here he was obliged to build his winter- 
ing house, but he soon ran short of provisions, and was obliged to visit La 
Pointe, with his men, in order to obtain fish — leaving his house and store- 
room locked, with his goods, ammunition, and liquors, and resolving to 
return immediately. But the weather came on so bad, that there was nc 
possibility of his immediate return, and the winter proved so unfavourabhv 
that he was obliged to spend two months at that post. 

During this time, the chief Andaig Weos, with fifteen of his men, came, 
out from the interior, to the shores of the lake, for the purpose of trading,, 
each carrying a pack of beaver, or other furs. On arriving at the poin'» 
La Petite Fille, fliey found the trader's house locked and no one there. 
The chief said to his followers. — It is customary for traders to invite In- 
dians into their house, and to receive them politely ; but as there is mi 
one to receive us, we must act according to circumstances. He then 
ordered the door to be opened, with as little injury as possible, walked in, 
with his part}?-, and caused a good fire to be built* in the chimney. On 
opening the store-door he found they could be supplied with ail they 
wanted. He told his party, on no account to touch, or take away any 
thing, but shut up the door, and said, " that he would, on the morrow, act 
the trader's part." 

They spent the night in the house. Early the next morning, he arose 
and addressed them, telling them, that he would now commence trading 
with them. This he accordingly did, and when all was finished, he care- 
fully packed the furs, and piled the packs, and covered them with an oil- 
cloth. He then again addressed them, saying that it was customary for 
a trader to give tobacco and a keg of spirits, when Indians had traded 
handsomely. He. therefore, thought himself authorized to observe this 
rule, and accordingly gave a keg of spirits and some tobacco. " The 
spirits," he said, " must not be drank here. We must take it to our 
hunting camp," and gave orders for returning immediately. Fie then 
caused the doors to be shut, in the best manner possible, and the outer 
door to be barricaded with logs, and departed. 

When the trader returned, and found his house had been broken open, 
he began to bewail his fate, being sure he had been robbed ; but on enter- 
ing his store room and beholding the furs, his fears were turned to joy. 
On examinmg his inventory, and comparing it with the amount of his 
furs, he declared, that had he been present, he could not have traded to 
better advantage, nor have made such a profit on his goods. 



ANDAIG WEOS, OR CROWS-FLESH. 



195 



These traits are not solitary and accidental. It happened at another 
time, that a Mr. Lamotte, who had wintered in the Folle-avoine country, 
unfortunately had a quarrel with the Indians, at the close of the season, 
just when he was about to embark on his return with his^furs. In the 
heat of their passion the Indians broke all his canoes in pieces, and con- 
fined him a prisoner, by ordering him to encamp on an island in the St, 
Croix river. 

In this situation he remained, closely watched by the Indians, till all 
the other traders had departed and gone out of the country to renew their 
supplies, when the chief Andaig Weos arrived. He comprehended the 
case in an instant, and having found that the matter of offence was one of 
no importance, he immediately went to the Indian village, and in a loud 
and authoritative tonp of voice, so as to be heard by all, commanded suit- 
able canoes to be taken to the imprisoned trader — a summons which was 
promptly obeyed. He then w^ent to Mr. Lamotte and told him to embark 
fearlessly, and that he himself would see that he was not further hindered, 
at the same time lamenting the lateness of his return. 

The general conduct of this chief was marked by kindness and ur- 
banity. When traders arrived at Chagoimegon, where he lived, it was 
his custom to order his young men to cover and protect their baggage lest 
any thing should be injured or stolen. He was of the lineage of the 
noted war-chief, Abojeeg, or Wab Ojeeg, He lived to be very old, so that 
he walked nearly bent double — using a cane. The present ruling chief of 
that place, called Pezhickee, is his grandson. These anecdotes were re- 
lated by Mr. Cadotte, of Lapointe, in the year 1829, and are believed to 
be entitled to full confidence. 



The Tartars cannot pronounce the letter b. Those of Bulgaria pro- 
nounce the word blades as if written ilacs. It is noticeable, that the Odji- 
bwas and their cognate tribes at the north, not only make great use of the 
letter b, in native words, but when they come to pronounce English 
words, in which the letter v occurs, they invariably substitute the b for it, 
as in village, and vinegar. 

There are three letters in the English alphabet which the above tribes 
do not pronounce. They are f, r, and 1. For f, they substitute, in their 
attempts to pronounce foreign words, p. The sound of r, they change to 
broad a, or drop. L is changed to n. 

Singing and dancing are applied to political and to religious purposes * 
by the Indians. When they wish to raise a war-party, they meet to sing \ 
and dance : when they wish t6 supphcate the divine mercy on a sick per- 
son, they assemble in a lodge, to sing and dance. No grave act is per- 
formed without singing and dancing. 



ORIGIN 

AND 

HISTORY or THE RACE. 



WYANDOT TRADITIONS OF THE CREATION, 
AND OTHER EPOCHS. 

The foHowing- traditions of the creation of man, and of the Red Race ; 
of the order of precedence and relationship among the tribes, and the no- 
tice of the first arrival of Europeans on the continent, together with the 
allegories of Good and Evil, and of Civilization and Barbarism, are ex- 
tracted from a private journal, kept during the period of my official inter- 
course with the various tribes. 

Superintendency Indian Affairs, 

Detroit, January 30th, 1 837. 

A delegation of three Wyandot chiefs visited me, this day, from their 
location near Amherstburg in Canada, with their interpreter, George C. 
Martin. Their names were 0-ri-wa-hen-to, or Charlo, On-ha-to-tun-youh, 
or Round Head, son of Round Head, the brother of Splitlog, and Ty-ei- 
on-youh, or Thomas Clark. They informed me, in reply to a questioiL 
that the present population of their band, at that location, was eighty-six 
souls. After transacting their business, I proposed several questions lo 
them respecting their origin and history. 

i. What is the origin of the Indians ? We believe that all men sprang 
from one man and vv^oman, who were made by God, in parts beyond the 
sea. But in speaking of the Indians we say, how did they cross the sea 
without ships ? and when did they come 'I and from what country ? 
What is your opinion on the subject ? 

Orivv'ahento answered : " The old chief, Splitlog, who could answer 
you, is not able to come to see you from his age and feebleness ; but he 
""has sent us three to speak with you. We will do the best we can. We 
are not able to read and write, like white m.en, and what you ask is not 
therefore to be found in black and v/hite." (This remark was probabiv 
made as they observed I took notes of the interview.) 

" There was, in ancient times, something the matter with the earth, it 
has changed. We think so. We beiieve God created it, and made men 
out of it. We think he made the Indians in this country, and that they 
did not come over the sea. They were created at a place called Mouw 

196 



WYANDOT TRADITIOxSES OF THE CREATION. 



197 



TAINS. It was eastward. When he had made the earth and those moun- 
tains, he covered something over the earth, as it vvrere, with his hand. 
Below this, he put man. All the different tribes were there. One of the 
young men found his way out to the surface. He saw a great light, and 
was delighted with the beauty of the surface. While gazing around, he 
saw a deer running past, with an arrow in his side. He followed it, to 
the place where it fell and died. He thought it was a harmless looking 
animal. He looked back to see its tracks, and he soon saw other tracks. 
They were the foot prints of the person who had shot the deer. He soon 
came up. It was the creator himself. He had taken this method to show 
the Indians what they must do, when they came out from the earth. 
The creator showed him how to skin and dress the animal, bidding 
him do so and so, as he directed him. When the flesh was ready, 
he told him to make a fire. But he was perfectly ignorant. God made 
the fire. He then directed him to put a portion of the meat on a stick, 
and roast it before the fire. But he was so ignorant that he let it stand till 
it burned on one side, while the other was raw. 

Having taught this man the hunter's art, so that he could teach it to 
others, God called the Indians forth out of the earth. They came in 
order, by tribes, and to each tribe he^ appointed a chief He appointed 
one Head Chief to lead them all, who had something about his neck, and 
he instructed him, and put it into his head what to say to the tribes. 
That he might have an opportunity to do so, a certain animal v/as killed, 
and a feast made, in which they were told to eat it all. The leader God 
had so chosen, told the tribes what they must do, to please their maker, 
and what they must not do. 

> Oriwahento further said : God also made Good and Evil. They were 
brothers. The one went forth to do good, and caused pleasant 
things to grow. The other busied himself in thwarting his brother's 
work. He made stony and flinty places, and caused bad fruits, and made 
continual mischief among men. Good repaired the mischief as fast as it 
was done, but he found his labour never done. He, determined to fly 
upon his brother and destroy him, but not by violence. He proposed to 
run a race with him^. Evil consented, and they fixed upon the place. But 
first tell me, said Good, what is it you most dread. Bucks horns ! replied 
he, and tell me what is most hurtful to you. Indian grass braid ! said 
Good. Evil immediately went to his grandmother, who made braid, and 
got large quantities of it, which he put in the path and hung on the limbs 
that grew by the path where Good was to run. Good also filled the path 
of his brother with the dreaded horns. A question arose who should run 
first. I, said Good, will begin, since the proposition to try our skill first, 
came from me. He accordingly set out, his brother following him. But 
as he began to feel exhaustea". at noon, he took up the grass braid and eat 
it. This sustained him, and he tired down his brother before night, who 



198 



WYANDOT TRADITIONS OF THE CREATION. 



entreated him to stop. He did not, however, cease, till he had successfully 
reached the goal. 

The next day Evil started on his path. He was encountered every 
where by the horns, which before noon had greatly weakened him. He 
entreated to be relieved from going on. Good insisted on his running the 
course. He sustained himself 'till sunset, when he fell in the path, and 
was finally dispatched by one of the horns wielded by his brother. 

Good now returned in triumph to his grandmother's lodge. But she 
was in an ill humouu, as she always was, and hated him and loved his 
brother whom he had killed. He wanted to rest, but at night was awoke 
by a conversation between her and the ghost of Evil. The latter pleaded 
to come in, but although he felt for him, he did not allow his fraternal 
feelings to get the better, and resolutely denied admission. Then said 
Evil " I go to the north-west, and you will never see me more, and all who 
follow me will be in the same state. They will never come back. Death 
will for ever keep them." 

Having thus rid himself of his adversary, he thought he would walk 
out and see how things were going on, since there was no one to oppose 
his doing good. After travelling some time he saw a living object a-head. 
As he drew nearer, he saw more plainly. It was a naked man. They 
began to talk to each other. " I am walking to see the creation, which I 
have made," said Good, "hut who are you ?" " Clothed man," said he, "I 
am as powerful as you, and have made all that land you see." " Naked 
man," he replied, " I Have made all things, but do not recollect making 
you." " You shall see my power," said the naked man, " we will try 
strength. Call to yonder mountain to come here, and afterwards I will do 
the same, and we will see who has the greatest power." The clothed man 
fell down on his knees, and began to pray, but the effort did not succeed, or 
but partially. Then the naked man drew a rattle from his belt, and be- 
gan to shake it and mutter, having first blindfolded the other. After a 
time, now said he, " look !" He did so, and the mountain stood close be- 
fore him, and rose up to the clouds. He then blindfolded him again, and 
resumed his rattle and muttering. The mountain had resumed its former 
distant position. 

The clothed man held in his left hand a sword, and in his right hand 
the law of God. The naked man had a rattle in one hand, and a war 
club in the other. They exchanged the knowledge of the respective uses 
of these things. To show the power of the sword, the clothed man cut 
off a rod, and placed it before him. The naked man immediately put the 
parts together and they were healed. He then took his club, which was 
flat, and cut off the rod, and again healed the mutilated parts. He relied 
on the rattle to answer the same purpose as the other's book. The clothed 
man tried the use of the club, but could not use it with skill, while the 
naked man took the sword and used it as well as the other. 



WYANDOT TRADITIONS ^F THE CRExiTION. 



199 



Oriwahento continued : — It is said that Evil killed his mother at his 
birth. He did not enter the world the right way, but hursted from the 
womb. They took the body of the mother and laid it upon a scaffold. 
From the droppings of her decay, where they fell on the ground, sprang 
up corn, tobacco, and such other vegetable productions as the Indians 
have. Hence we call corn, our mother. And our tobacco propagates it- 
self by spontaneous growth, without planting : but the clothed man is re- 
quired to labour in raising it. 

Good found his grandmother in no better humor when he came back 
from the interview with the naked man. He therefore took and cast her 
up, ana she flew against the moon, upon whose face the traces of her are 
still to be seen. 

This comprised the first interview : after a recess during which they 
were permitted to refresh themselves and smoke their pipes, I returned to 
the office and resumed the inquiries. 

2. Where did your tribe first see white men on this continent? The 
French say you lived on the St. Lawrence, and afterwards went to the 
north, from whence you afterwards came down to the vicinity of Detroit 
That you possess the > privilege of lighting up the general council fire for 
the Lake tribes ; and that you were converted to the catholic faith. Ori- 
wahento again answered. 

When the tribes were all settled, the Wyandots were placed at the head 
They lived in the interior, at the mountains east, about the St. Lawrence. 
They were the first tribe of old, and had the first chieftainship. The 
cnief said to their nephew, the Lenapees, Go down to the sea coast and 
look, and if you see any thing bring me word. They had a village near 
the sea side, and often looked, but saw nothing except birds. At leno-th 
they espied an object, which seemed to grow and come nearer, and nearer. 
When it came near the land it stopped, but all the people were afraid, and 
fled to the woods. The next day, two of their number ventured out to 
look. It was lying quietly on the water. A smaller object of the same 
sort came out of it, and walked with long legs (oars) over the water. 
When it came to land two men came out of it. They were different from 
us and made signs for the others to come out of the woods. A conference 
ensued. Presents were exchanged. They gave presents to the Lenapees, 
and the latter gave them their skin clothes as curiosities. Three distinct 
visits, at separate times, and long intervals, were made. The mode in 
which the white men got a footing, and power in the country was this. 
First, roonfi was asked, and leave given to place a chair on the shore. 
But they soon began to pull the lacing out of its bottom, and go inland 
with it; and they have not yet come to the end of the string. He 
exemplified this original demand for a cession of territory and its re- 
newal at other epochs, by other figures of speech, namely, of a bull's 
hide, and of a man walking. The first request for a seat on the 



200 WYANDOT TRADITIONS OF THE CREATION. 



shore, was made he said of the Lenapees : alluding to the cognate 
branches of this stock, who were anciently settled at the harbour of New 
York, and that vicinity. 

To the question of their fliglit from the St. Lawrence, their settlement in 
the north, and their subsequent migration to, and settlemeut on, the straits 
of Detroit, Oriwahento said: 

The Wyandots were proud. God had said that such should be beaten 
and brought low. This is the cause why we were followed from the 
east, and went up north away to Michilimackinac, but as we had the 
right before, so when we came back, the tribes looked up to us, as hold- 
ing the council fire.* 

3. What relationship do you acknowledge, to the other western 
tribes ? 

Answer by Ori^\'ahento : We call the Lenapees, ne'pheios ; we call the 
Odjibwas (Chippewas) Ottawas, Miamis &c. Younger Brother. We call 
the Shawnees, the Youngest Brother. The Wyandots were the first tribe 
in ancient times. The first chieftainship was in their tribe. 

SUPPLEMENTARY aUESTIONS TO THE INTERPRTER. 

L Are the Wyandot and Mohawk languages, alike in sounds. You 
say, you speak both. 

Ans. Not at all alike. It is true there are a few words so, but the two 
languages do not seem to me more akin than English and French. You 
know some English and French words are alike. The Mohawk lan- 
guage is on the tongue., the Wyandot is in the throat. 

2. Give me some examples : Read some of this translation of the Mo- 
hawk, (handing him John's Gospel printed by the American Bible So- 
ciety in 1818.) He complied, reading it fluently, and appearing to have 
been acquainted with the translation. 

Further conversation, in which his attention was drawn to particular 
facts in its structure and principles, made him see stronger analogies be- 
tween the two tongues. It was quite evident, that he had never reflected 
on the subject, and that there were, both grammatically, and philologically, 
coincidences beyond his depth. 

* This is certainly a dignified and wise answer ; designed as it was, to cover their 
disastrous defeat and flight from the St. Lawrence valley to the north. The prece- 
dence to which he alludes, on reaching the straits of Detroit, as having been theirs be- 
fore, is to be understood, doubtless, of the era of their residence on the lower St. Law- 
rence, where they were at the head of the French and Indian confederacy against the 
Iroquois. Amojig the latter, they certainly had no precedency, so far as histor\^ 
reaches. Their council fire was kept by the Onondagas. 

H. R. S 



TRADITIONS OF THE ARCTIDES. 

There are some curious traditions related by the race of people living 
on that part of the continent lying north and west of Athabasca lake, and 
the river Unjigah. Mackenzie has described that branch of them, who 
are called by the trivial name of Che-pe-wyans. This is an Algonquin 
term, meaning puckered blankets, and has reference only to the most 
easterly and southerly division of the race. They are but the van of an 
extensive race. All that gives identity to their general traditions, and dis- 
tinctive character and language, relates as well to the Dogribs, the Cop- 
permines, the Strongbows, the Ambawtawoots, the Hares, the Brush- 
woods, the Sursees, the Tacullies, the Nateotetains, and other tribes lo- 
cated north of them, extending to the Arctic Ocean, and west through the 
Peace river pass of the Rocky Mountains. Philology brings into one 
groupe all these dialects of a wide spread race, who extend from the bor- 
ders of the Atnah nation on the Columbia, across the Rocky Mountains 
eastwardly to the Lake of the Flills and the Missinipi or Churchill river, 
covering many degrees of latitude and longitude. In the absence of any 
generic name for them, founded on language or character, I shall allude 
to them under the geographical phrase of Arctides. 

This stock of people have proceeded from the direction of the North 
Pacific towards the Atlantic waters, in a general eastern direction, in 
which respect, their history forms a striking exception to the other great 
stocks of the eastern part of the United States, the Canadas, and Hudson's 
bay, who have been in a continual progress towards the west and north- 
west. The Arctides, on the contrary, have proceeded east and southeast. 
They may be supposed, therefore, to bring their traditions more directly 
from opposite portion's of the continent, and from Asia, and it may be in- 
ferred, from more unmixed and primitive sources. Some of these tradi- 
tions are, at least, of a curious and striking character. They believe, like 
the more southerly tribes, in the general tradition of a deluge, and of a 
paradise, or land cf future >liss. They have apparently, veiled the Great 

201 



202 



TRADITIONS OF THE ARCTIDES. 



Spirit, or creator of the globe, under the allegory of a gigantic bird. They 
believe, thai there was originally nothing visible but one vast ocean. 
Upon this the bird descended from the sky, with a noise of his wings 
which produced sounds resembling thunder. The earth, as he alighted, 
immediately rose above the waters. This bird of creative power, then 
made all the classes of animals, who were made out of earth. They all 
had precedency to man. Man alone, the last in the series, was created 
from the integument of a dog. This, they believe, w^as their own origin, 
and hence, as Mackenzie tells us, they will not eat the flesh of this animal, 
as is done by the other tribes of the continent. To guard and protect 
them, he then made a magic arrow, which they were to preserve with 
great care, and hold sacred. But they were so thoughtless, they add, as 
to carry it away and lose it, upon which the great bird took his flight, and 
has never since appeared. This magic arrow is doubtless to be regarded 
as a symbol of something else, which was very essential to their safety 
and happiness. Indian history is often disguised under such symbolic 
forms. 

They have also a tradition that they originally came from a foreign 
country, which was inhabited by a wicked people. They had to cross a 
great lake, or water, which was shallow, narrow, and full of islands. 
Their track lay also through snow and ice, and they suffered miserably 
from cold. They first landed at the mouth of the Coppermine river. 
The earth thereabouts was then strewed with metallic copper, which has 
since disappeared. 

They believe that, in ancient times, men lived till their feet were worn 
out With, walking, and their throats with eating. They represent their 
ancestors as living to very great ages. They describe a deluge, in which 
the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains, on 
which their progenitors were saved. 

Their notions of a future state coincide generally with the other stocks. 
But their paradise is clothed with more imaginative traits. They oelieve, 
that at death they pass immediately to another world, where there is a large 
river of water to cross. They must embark in a stone canoe, and are 
borne along into a wide lake, which has an island in its centre. This is 
the island of the blest, and the object of the disembodied soul is to reach it. 
If their lives have been good, they will be fortunate, and make it. If bad, 
they will sink ; but they will only sink to the depth of their chins, so that 
they may be permitted to behold the happy land, and strive in vain to 
reach it. Eternity is passed in this vain endeavour. 

They have also some notion of the doctrine of transmigration. Such 
are the traditionary notions of this numerous family of the Red Race, 
which are sufficiently distinctive and peculiar, — and while they resemble 
in many traits, yet in others they contradistinguish them from the great 
Algic race of the eastern part of the continent. The most advanced 



TRADITIONS OP THE ARCTIDE3 



203 



branch of these tribes in their geograghical position, call themselves, as 
reported by Capt. Franklin, People of the Rising Sun, or Saw-eesaw- 
dinneh. 

It seems singular, that the farther north we go, the greater evidences do 
we behold of imagination, in the aboriginal race, together v/ith some fore- 
shadowings of future punishment. 



HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF THE CHIPPEWAS, ODJIB- 
WAS, OR ODJIBWA-ALGONaUINS. 

Of all the existing branches of the Algonquin stock in America, this 
extensive and populous tribe appears to have the strongest claims to intel- 
lectual distinction, on the score of their traditions, so far, at least, as the 
present state of our inquiries extends. They possess, in their curious 
fictitious legends and lodge-tales, a varied and exhaustless fund of tradition, 
which is repeated from generation to generation. These legends hold, 
among the wild men of the north, the relative rank of story-books ; and 
are intended both to amuse and instruct. This people possess also, the 
art of picture writing, in a degree which denotes that they have been, 
either more careful, or more fortunate, in the preservation of this very an- 
cient art of th*? human race. Warriors, and the bravest of warriors, they 
are yet an intellectual people. 

Their traditions and belief, on the origin of the globe, and the existence 
of a Supreme Being, are quite accordant with some things in our own 
history and theory. They believe that the Great Spirit created material 
.alter, and that he made the earth and heavens, by the power of his will. 
He afterwards made animals and men, out of the earth, and he filled space 
with subordinate spirits, having something of his own nature, to whom he 
gave a part of his own power. He made one great and master spirit of 
evil, t«J whom he also gave assimilated and subordinate evil spirits, to 
execute his will. Two antagonist powers, they believe, were thus placed 
in the world who are continually striving tor me mastery, and who have 
power to affect the fortunes and lives of men. This oonstitates the ground- 
work of their religion, sacrifices and worship. 

They believe that animals were created before men.; and that they origi* 
nally had rule on the earth. By the power of rtcromancy, some of 
these animals were transformed to men, who, as soon as they assumed this 
form, began to hunt the animals, and make war against them. It is 



204 



INDIAN TRADITIONS. 



expected that these animals will resume their human shapes, in a future 
state, and hence their hunters, feign some clumsy excuses, for their 
present policy of killing them. They believe that all animals, and birds 
and reptiles, and even insects, possess reasoning faculties, and have souls. 
It is in these opinions, that we detect the ancient doctrine of transmigration. 

Their most intelligent priests tell us, that their forefathers worshipped 
the sun ; this luminary was regarded by them, as one of their Medas told 
me, as the symbol of divine intelligence, and the figure of it is drawn in 
their system of picture writing, to denote the Great Spirit. This symbol 
very often occurs in their pictures of the medicine dance, and the wabeno 
dance, and other sacred forms of their rude inscriptions. 

They believe, at least to some extent, in a duality of souls, one of which 
is fleshly, or corporeal, the other is incorporeal or mental. The fleshly soul 
goes immediately, at death, to the land of spirits, or future bliss. The 
mental soul abides with the body, and hovers round the place of sepul- 
ture. A future state is regarded by them, as a state of rewards, and not 
of punishments. They expect to inhabit a paradise, filled with pleasures 
for the eye, and the ear, and the taste. A strong and universal belief in 
divine mercies absorbs every other attribute of the Great Spirit, except his 
power and ubiquity ; and they believe, so far as we can gather it, 
that this mercy will be shown to all. There is not, in general, a very 
discriminating sense of moral distinctions and responsibilities, and the faint 
out-shadowings, which we sometimes hear among them, of a deep and 
sombre stream to be crossed by the adventurous soul, in its way to the 
land of bliss, does not exercise such a practical influence over their lives, 
as to interfere with the belief of universal acceptance after death. So 
firm is this belief, that their proper and most reverend term for the Great 
Spirit, is Gezha Monedo, that is to say, Merciful Spirit. Gitchy Monedo, 
which is also employed, is often an equivocal phrase. The term Waz- 
heaud, or Maker, is used to designate the Creator, when speaking of his 
animated works. The compound phrase Waosemigoyan, or universal 
Father, is also heard. 

The great spirit of evil, called Mudje Monedo, and Matche Monito, is 
regarded as a created^ and not a pre-existing being. Subordinate spirits of 
evil, are denoted by using the derogative form of the word, in sh by 
which Moneto is rendered Monetosh. The exceeding flexibility of the 
language is well calculated to enable them to express distinction of this 
nature. 

This tribe has a general tradition of a deluge, in which the earth was 
covered with water, reaching above the highest hills, or mountains, but 
not above a tree which grew on the latter, by climbing which a man was 
saved. This man was the demi-god of their fictions, who is called Mana- 
bozho, by whose means the waters were stayed and the earth re-created. 
He employed for this purpose various animals who were sent to dive 



INDIAlSf TRADITIONS. 



205 



down for some of the primordial earth, of which a little was, at length, 
brought up by the beaver, and this formed the germ or nucleus of the new, 
or rather rescued planet. What particular allegories are hid under this 
story, is not certain ; but it is known that this, and other tribes, are much 
in the habit of employing allegories, and symbols, under which we may 
suspect, they have concealed parts of their historical traditions and be- 
liefs. This deluge of the Algonquin tribes, was produced, as their 
legends tell, by the agency of the chief of the evil spirits, symbolized by a 
great serpent, who is placed, throughout the tale, in an antagonistical posi- 
tion to the demi-god Manabosho. This Manabozho, is the same, it is 
thought, with the Abou, and the Michabou, or the Great Hare of elder 
writers. 

Of their actual origin and history, the Chippewas have no other certain 
tradition, than that they came from Wabenong, that is to say, the land of the 
EAST. They have no authentic history, therefore, but such remembered 
events, as must be placed subsequent to the era of the discovery of the conti- 
nent. Whether this tradition is to be interpreted as an ancient one, having 
reference to their arrival on the continent, or merely to the track of their mi- 
gration, after reaching it, is a question to be considered. It is only certain, 
that they came to their present position on the banks of Lake Superior, from 
the direction of the Atlantic seaboard, and were, when discovered, in the 
attitude of an invading nation, pressing westward and northward. Their 
distinctive name sheds no light on this question. The)'- call themselves 
Od-jib'Wdg, which is the plural of Odjibwa, — a term which appears to 
denote a peculiarity in their voice, or manner of utterance. This word 
has been pronounced Chippewa by the Saxon race in America, and is 
thus recorded in our treaties and history. They are, in language, 
manners and customs, and other characteristics, a well marked type of 
the leading Algonquin race, and indeed, the most populous, important, 
and wide spread existing branch of that family now on the continent. 
The term Chippewa, may be considered as inveterately fixed by popular 
usage, but in all disquisitions which have their philology or distinctive 
cnaracter m view, tne true vernacular term of Od-jib-wa, will be found to 
possess advantages to writers. The word Algonquin is still applied to a 
small local band, at the Lake of Two Mountains, on the Utawas river, 
near Montreal, but this term, first bestowed by the French, has long been 
a generic, phrase for the entire race, who are identified by the ties of a 
common original language in the United States and British America. 

One of the most curious opinions of this people is their belief in the 
mysterious and sacred character of fire. They obtain sacred fire, for all 
national and ecclesiastical purposes, from the flint. Their national pipes 
are lighted with this fire. It is symbolical of purity. Their notions of 
the boundary between life and death, which is also symbolically the limit 
of the material verge between this and a future state, are revealed in con- 



206 



INDIAN TRADITIONS. 



nection with the exhibition of flames of fire. They also make sacrifices 
by fire of some part of the first fruits of the chase. These traits are to be 
viewed, perhaps, in relation to their ancient worship of the sun, above no- 
ticed, of which the traditions and belief, are still generally preserved. 
The existence among them of the numerous classes of jossakeeds, or mut- 
terers — (the word is from the utterance of sounds low on the earth,) is a 
trait that will remind the reader of a similar class of men, in early ages, 
in the eastern hemisphere. These persons constitute, indeed, the Magii 
of our western forests. In the exhibition of their art, and of the peculiar 
notions they promulgate on the subject of a sacred fire, and the doctrine 
of transmigration, they would seem to have their affiliation of descent 
rather with the disciples of Zoroaster and the fruitful Persian stock, than 
with the less mentally refined Mongolian hordes. 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 
OF THE ALGONQUINS. 

THEIR SYSTEM OF MANITO WORSHIP, AS RECENTLY DISCLOSED BY THE CONFES- 
SIONS OF ONE OF THEIR PROPHETS ; THEIR LANGUAGES, AND CHARACTER OF THE 
lAANSLATIONS OF THE GOSPEL MADE INTO THESE DIALECTS J AND THE LEAD- 
iNG MOTIVES OF CHRISTIANS AND PHILANTHROPISTS TO PERSEVERE IN THEIR 
CIVILISATION AND CONVERSION.* 



It is known that the Indian tribes of this continent live in a state ot 
mental bondage to a class of men, who officiate as their priests and 
soothsayers. These men found their claims to supernatural power on 
early fastings, dreams, ascetic manners and habits, and often on some 
real or feigned fit of insanity. Most of them affect a knowledge of 
charms and incantations. They are provided with a sack of mystic im- 
plements, the contents of which are exhibited in the course of their cere- 
monies, such as the hollow bones of some of the larger anseres, small 
carved representations of animals, cowrie and other sea-shells, &c. Some 
of these men acquire a character for much sanctity, and turn their influ- 
ence to political purposes, either personally or through some popular 
warrior, as was instanced in the success of the sachems Buchanjahela, 
Little Turtle and Tecumthe. 

We have recently had an opportunity of conversing with one of this 
class of sacred person, who has within late years embraced Christianity ; 
and have made some notes of the interview, which we will advert to for 
the purpose of exhibiting his testimony, as to the true character of this 



* Nev York Lit. & Theo. Review. 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 207 



class of impostors. Chusco, the person referred to, is an Ottawa Indian 
who has long exercised the priestly office, so to say, to his brethren on 
the northern frontiers. He is now a man turned of seventy. He is of 
small stature, somewhat bent forward, and supports the infirmities of 
age by walking with a staff. His sight is impaired, but his memory ac- 
curate, enabling him to narrate with particularity events which transpired 
more than half a century ago. He was present at the great convocation 
of northern Indians at Greenville, which followed Gen. Wayne's victories 
in the west — an event to which most of these tribes look back, as an 
era in their history. He afterwards returned to his native country in 
the upper lakes, and fixed his residence at MichiUmackinac, where in 
late years, his wife became a convert to the Christian faith, and unit- 
ed herself to the mission church on that island. A few years after, 
the old prophet, who despised this mode of faith, and thought but little 
of hi^ wife's sagacity in uniting herself to a congregation of believers, felt 
his own mind arrested by the same truths, and finally also embraced 
them, and was propounded for admission, and afterwards kept on trial 
before the session. It was about this time, or soon after he had been 
received as an applicant for membership, that the writer visited his 
lodge, and entered into a full examination of his sentiments and opinions, 
contrasting them freely with what they had formerly been. We requested 
him to narrate to us the facts of his conversion to the principles of Chris- 
tianity, indicating the progress of truth on his mind, which he did in sub- 
stancejthrough an interpreter, as follows : 

" In the early part of my life I lived very wickedly, following the 
Meta, the Jeesukan, and the Wabeno, the three great superstitious ob- 
servances of my people. I did not know that these societies v/ere made 
up of errors until my wife, whose heart had been turned by the mission- 
aries, informed me of it. I had no pleasure in listening to her on this 
subject, and often turned away, declaring that I was well satisfied with 
the religion of my forefathers. She took every occasion of talking to 
me on the subject. She told me that the Indian societies were bad, and 
that all who adhered to them were no better than open servants of the 
Evil Spirit. She had, in particular, /our long talks with me on the sub- 
ject, and explained to me who God was, and what sin was, as it is writ- 
ten in God's book. I believed before, that there was One Great Spirit 
who was the Master of life, who had made men and beasts. But she 
explained to me the true character of this Great Spirit, the sinfulness of 
the heart, and the necessity of having it changed from evil to good by 
praying through Jesus Christ. By degrees I came to understand it. 
She told me that the Ghost of God or Holy Spirit only could make the 
heart better, and that the souls of all who died, without having felt this 
power, would be burned in the fires. The missionaries had directed her 
to speak to me and put words in her mouth ; and she said so much that, 



.208 



OP THE ALGONQUINS. 



at length, I did not feel satisfied with my old way of life. Amongst other 
things she spoke against drinking, which I was very fond of. 

" I did not relish these conversations, but I could not forget them 
When I reflected upon them, my heart was not as fixed as it used to be. 
I began to see thai the Indian Societies were bad, for I knew from my 
own experience, that it was not a good Spirit that I had relied upon, j 
determined that I would not undertake to jeesuka or to look into futurity 
any longer for the Indians, nor practice the Mela's art. After a while I 
began to see more fully that the Indian ceremonies were all bad, and I de- 
termined to quit them altogether, and give heed to what was declared in 
God's book. 

" The first time that I felt I was to be condemned as a sinner, and that I 
was in danger of being punished for sin by God, is clearly in my mind. 
I was then on the Island of Bois Blanc, making sugar with my wife. I 
was in a conflict of mind, and hardly knew what I was about. I walked 
around the kettles, and did not know what I walked for. I felt some- 
times like a person wishing to cry, but I thought it would be unman- 
ly to cry. For the space of two weeks, I felt in this alarmed and 
unhappy mood. It seemed to me sometimes as if I must die. My 
heart and my bones felt as if they would burst and fall asunder. My 
wife asked me if I was sick, and said I looked pale. I was in an agony 
of body and mind, especially during one week. It seemed, during this 
time, as if an evil spirit haunted me. When I went out to gather sap, 
I felt conscious that this spirit went with me and dogged me. It ap- 
peared to animate my own shadow. 

" My strength was failing under this conflict. One night, after I had 
been busy all day, my mind was in great distress. This shadowy influ- 
ence seemed to me to persuade me to go to sleep. I was tired, and I 
wished rest, but I could not sleep. I began to pray. I knelt down and 
prayed to God. I continued to pray at intervals through the night ; I 
asked to know the truth. I then laid down and went to sleep. This 
sleep brought me rest and peace. In the morning my wife awoke me, 
telling me it was late. When I awoke I felt placid and easy in mind. 
My distress had left me. I asked my wife what day it was. She told 
me it was the Sabbath (in the Indian, prayer-day). I replied, * how I 
wish I could go to the church at the mission ! Formerly I used to avoid 
it, and shunned those who wished to speak to me of praying to God, but 
now my heart longs to go there.' This feeling did not leave me. 

" After three days I went to the mission. The gladness of my heart 
y continued the same as I had felt it the first morning at the camp. My 
first feeling when I landed, was pity for my drunken brethren, and I 
prayed that they might also be brought to find the true God. I spoke 
to the missionary, who at subsequent interviews explained to me the 
truth, the rite of baptism, and other principles. He wished, however, to 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 



209 



try me by my life, and I wished it also. It was the following autumn, 
that I was received into the church." 

We now turned his mind to the subject of intemperance in drinking, 
understanding that it had been his former habit. He replied that he 
had been one of the greatest drunkards. He had not been satisfied with 
a ten days' drink. He would go and drink as long as he could get it. 
He said, that during the night in which he first prayed, it was one of the 
first subjects of his prayers, that God would remove this desire with his 
other evil desires. He added, " God did so." When he arose that 
morning the desire had left him. The evil spirit then tempted him by 
suggesting to his mind — " Should some one now enter and offer you 
liquor, would you not taste it He averred he could, at that moment, 
firmly answer No ! It was now seven years since he had tasted a drop 
of strong drink. He remarked that when he used first to visit the 
houses of Christians, who gladly opened their doors to him, they were in 
the habit of asking him to drink a glass of cider or wine, which he did. 
But this practice had nearly rained him. On one occasion he felt the 
effects of what he had thus been prevailed on to drink. The danger he 
felt himself to be in was such, that he was alarmed and gave up this prac- 
tice also. 

He detailed some providential trials which he had been recently ex- 
posed to. He had observed, he said, that those of his people who had 
professed piety and had subsequently fallen off, had nevertheless pros- 
pered in worldly things, while he had found it very hard to live. He 
was often in a state of want, and his lodge was so poor and bad, that it 
would not keep out the rain. Both he and his wife were feeble, and 
their clothes were worn out. They had now but a single blanket be- 
tween them. But when these trials came up in his mind, he immedi- 
ately resorted to God, who satisfied him. 

Another trait in the character of his piety, may here be mentioned. 
The autumn succeeding his conversion, he went over to the spot on the 
island where he had planted potatoes. The Indian method is, not to 
visit their small plantations from the time that their corn or potatoes are 
hilled. He was pleased to find that the crop in this instance promised 
to yield abundantly, and his wife immediately commenced the process of 
raising them. " Stop !" exclaimed the grateful old man, " dare you dig 
these potatoes until we have thanked the Lord for them They then 
both knelt in prayer, and afterwards gathered the crop. 

This individual appeared to form a tangible point in the intellectual 
chain between Paganism and Christianity, which it is felt important to 
examine. We felt desirous of drawing from him such particulars respect- 
ing his former practice in necromancy and the prophetic art, ks might lead 
to correct philosophical conclusions. He had been the great juggler of 
his tribe. He was now accepted as a Christian. What were his own 

14 



210 



OF THE ALGGNQUiNS. 



conceptions of the power and arts he had practised ? How did these 
things appear to his mind, after a lapse of several years, during which 
his opinions and feelings had undergone changes, in many respects so 
striking ? We found not the slightest avoiding of this topic on his part. 
He attributed all his ability in deceptive arts to the agency of the Evil 
Spirit ; and he spoke of it with the same settled tone that he had manifest- 
ed in reciting other points in his personal experience. He believed that he 
had followed a spirit whose object it was to deceive the Indians and 
make them miserable. He believed that this spirit had left him and 
that he was now following, in the affections of his heart, the spirit of 
Truth. 

Numerous symbols of the classes of the animate creation are relied 
on by the Indian metays and wahcnosy to exhibit their affected power of 
working miracles and to scrutinize the scenes of futurity. The objects 
which this man had appealed to as personal spirits in the arcanum of his 
lodge, were the tortoise, the swan, the woodpecker and the crow. He 
had dreamed of these at his initial fast in his youth, during the period 
set apart for this purpose, and he believed^ that a satanic influence was 
exerted, by presenting to his mind one or more of these solemnly appro- 
priated objects at the moment of -his invoking them. This is the theory 
drawn from his replies. We solicited him to detail the modus operandi, 
after entering the juggler's lodge. This lodge resembles an acute pyra- 
mid with the apex open. It is formed of poles, covered with tight- 
drawn skins. His replies were perfectly ingenuous, evincing nothing of 
the natural taciturnity and shyness of the Indian mind. The great ob- 
ject with the operator is to agitate this lodge, and cause it to move and 
shake without uprooting it from its basis, in such a manner as to induce 
the spectators to believe that the power of action is superhuman. Af- 
ter this manifestation of spiritual presence, the priest within is prepared 
to give oracular responses. The only articles within were a drum and 
rattle. In reply to our inquiry as to the mode of procedure, he stated 
that his first essay, after entering the lodge, was to strike the drum and 
commence his incantations. At this time his personal manitos assumed 
their agency, and received, it is to be inferred, a satamc energy. Not 
fhat he affects that there was any visible form assumed. But he felt 
their spirit-like presence. He represents the agitation of the lodge to 
be due to currents of air, having the irregular and gyratory power of a 
whirlwind. He does not pretend that his responses were guided by 
truth, but on the contrary affirms that tii^ey were given under the influ- 
ence of the evil spirit. 

We interrogated him as to the use of physical and mechanical means 
in effecting cures, in the capacity of a meta, or a medicine man. He 
referred to various medicines, some of which he thinks were antibilious 
or otherwise sanatory. He used two bones in the exhibition of hii 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 211 



physical skill, one of which was white and the other green. His arca- 
num also embraced two small stone images. He affected to look into 
and through the flesh, and to draw from the body fluids, as bile and blood. 
He applied his mouth in suction. He characterized both the meta or 
medicine dances and the wabeno dances by a term which may be trans- 
lated deviltry. Yet he discriminated between these two popular insti* 
tutions by adding that the meia included the use of medicines, good and 
bad. The wabeno^ on the contrary, consisted wholly in a wild exhibi- 
tion of mere braggadocio and trick. It is not, according to him, an an- 
cient institution. It originated, he said, with a Pottawattomie, who was 
sick and lunatic a month When this' man recovered he pretended that 
he had ascended to heaven, and had brought thence divine arts, to aid his 
countrymen. 

With respect to the opinion steadfastly maintained by this venerable 
subject of Indian reformation, that his deceptive arts were rendered effec- 
tual in the way he designed, by satanic agency , we leave the reader to 
form his own conclusions. In his mode of stating the facts, we concede 
much to him, on the score of long established mental habits, and the 
peculiarities arising from a mythology, exceeding even that of ancient 
Greece, for the number, variety and ubiquity of its objects. But we per- 
ceive nothing, on Christian theories, heterodox in the general position. 
When the truth of the gospel comes to be grafted into the benighted 
heart of a pagan, such as Chusco was, it throws a fearful light on the 
objects which have been cherished there. The whole system of the 
mythological agency of the gods and spirits of the heathen world and its 
clumsy machinery is shown to be a sheer system of demonology, refera- 
ble, in its operative effects on the minds of individuals, to the " Prince 
of the power of the air." As such the Bible depicts it. We have not 
been in the habit of conceding the existence of demoniacal possessions^ 
in the present era of Christianity^ and have turned over some scores of 
chapters and verses to satisfy our minds of the abrogation of these things. 
But we have found no proofs of such a withdrawal of evil agency short 
of the very point where our subject places it — that is, the dawning of 
the light of Christianity in the heart. We have, on the contrary, found in 
the passages referred to, the declaration of the full and free existence of 
such an agency in the general import, and apprehend that it cannot be 
plucked out of the sacred writings. 

The language of such an agency appears to be fully developed among 
the northern tribes. Spirit-ridden they certainly are ; and the mental 
slavery in which they live, under the fear of an invisible agency of evil 
spirits, is, we apprehend, greater even than the bondage of the body. 
The whole mind is bowed down under these intellectual fetters which 
circumscribe its volitions, and bind it as effectually as with the hooks of 
steel which pierce a whirling Hindoo's flesh. Whatever is wonderful, 



212 



OP THE ALGONQUINS. 



or past comprehension to their minds, is referred to the agency of a spirit 
This is the ready solution of every mystery in nature, and of every re 
finement of mechanical power in art. A watch is, in the intricacy of its 
machinery, a spirit. A piece of blue cloth — ^cast and blistered steel — a 
compass, a jewel, an, insect, &c., are, respectively, a spirit. Thunder 
consists, in their transcendental astronomy, of so many distinct spirits. 
The aurora borealis is a body of dancing spirits, or rather ghosts of the 
departed. 

Such were the ideas and experiences of Chusco, after his union with 
the church ; and with these views he lived and died, having given 
evidence, as was thought, of the reception of the Saviour, through 
faith. 

To give some idea of the Indian mythology as above denoted, it is 
necessary to conceive every department of the universe to be filled with 
invisible spirits. These spirits hold in their belief nearly the same rela- 
tion to matter that the soul does to the body ; they pervade it. They 
believe not only that every man, but also that every animal^ has a soul; 
and as might be expected under this belief, they make no distinction 
between instinct and reason. Every animal is supposed to be endowed 
with a reasoning faculty. The movements of birds and other animals 
are deemed to be the result, not of mere instinctive animal powers im- 
planted and limited by the creation, without inherent power to exceed ox 
enlarge them, but of a process of ratiocination. They go a step farther, 
and believe that animals, particularly birds, can look into, and are fami- 
liar with the vast operations of the world above. Hence the great re- 
spect they pay to birds as agents of omen, and also to some animals, 
whose souls they expect to encounter in another life. Nay, it is the 
settled belief among the northern Algonquins, that animals will fare bet- 
ter in another world, in the precise ratio that their lives and enjoyments 
have been curtailed in this life. 

Dreams are considered hy them as a means of direct communication 
with the spiritual world ; and hence the great influence which dreams 
exert over the Indian mind and conduct. They are generally regarded 
as friendly warnings of their personal manitos. No labor or enterprise 
is undertaken against their indications. A whole army is turned back 
if the dreams of the officiating priest are unfavorable. A family lodge 
has been known to be deserted by all its inmates at midnight, leaving the 
fixtures behind, because one of the family had dreamt of an attack, and 
been frightened with the impression of blood and tomahawks. To give 
more solemnity to his office the priest or leading meta exhibits a sack 
containing the carved or stuffed images of animals, with medicines and 
bones constituting the sacred charms. These are never exhibited to the 
common gaze, but, on a march, the sack is hung up in plain view. To 
profane the medicine sack would be equivalent to violating the atlar. 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 213 



Dreams are carefully sought by every Indian, whatever be their rank, 
at certain periods of youth, with fasting. These fasts are sometimes 
continued a great number of days, until the devotee becomes pale and 
emaciated. The animals that appear propitiously to the mind during 
these dreams, are fixed on and selected as personal manitos, and are 
ever after viewed as guardians. This period of fasting and dream- 
ing is deemed as essential by them as any rehgious rite whatever em- 
ployed by Christians. The initial fast of a young man or girl holds the 
relative importance of baptism, with this pecuharity, that it is a free- 
will, or self-dedicatory rite. 

The naming of children has an intimate connection with the system of 
mythological agency. Names are usually bestowed by some aged per- 
son, most commonly under the supposed guidance of a particular spirit. 
They are often derived from the mystic scenes presented in a dream, and 
refer to aerial phenomena. Yellow Thunder, Bright Sky , Big Cloud, Spirit 
Sky, Spot in the Sky, are common names for males. Females are more 
commonly named from the vernal or autumnal landscape, as Woman of 
the Valley, Woman of the Rock, &c. Females are not excluded from par- 
ticipation in the prophetical office or jugglership. Instances of their hav- 
ing assumed this function are known to have occurred, although it is 
commonly confined to males. In every other department of life they 
are apparently regarded as inferior or inclusive beings. Names bestowed 
with ceremony in childhood are deemed sacrfed, and are seldom pro- 
nounced, out of respect, it would seem, to the spirit under whose favor 
they are supposed to have been selected. Children are usually called 
in the family by some name which can be familiarly used. A male child 
is frequently called by the mother, a bird, or young one, or old man, as 
terms of endearment, or bad boy, evil-doer, &c., in the way of light re- 
proach ; and these names often adhere to the individual through life. 
Parents avoid the true name often by saying my son, my younger, or 
my elder son, or my younger or my elder daughter, for which the language 
has separate words. This subject of a reluctance to tell their names is 
very curious and deserving of investigation. 

The Indian " art and mystery" of hunting is a tissue of necromantic 
or mythological reliances. The personal spirits of the hunter are invok- 
ed to give success in the chace. Images of the animals sought for are 
sometimes carved in wood, or drawn by the metas on tabular pieces of 
wood By applying their mystic medicines to these, the animals are 
supposed to be drawn into the hunter's path ; and when animals have 
been killed, the Indian feels, that although they are an authorized and 
lawful prey, yet there is something like accountability to the animal's 
suppositional soul. An Indian has been known to ask the pardon of an 
animal, which he had just killed. Drumming, shaking the rattle, and 
dancing and singing, are the cotoinon accompaniments of all these super- 



214 



OP THE ALGONQUINS. 



stitious observances, and are not peculiar to one class alone. In the 
wabeno dance, which is esteemed by the Indians as the most latitudina- 
rian co-fraternity, love songs are introduced. They are never heard in 
the medicine dances. They would subject one to utter contempt in the 
war dance. 

The system of manito worship has another peculiarity, which is illus- 
trative of Indian character. During the fasts and ceremonial dances by 
which a warrior prepares himself to come up to the duties of war, every- 
thing that savors of effeminacy is put aside. The spirits which preside 
over bravery and war are alone relied on, and these are supposed to be 
offended by the votary's paying attention to objects less stern and manly 
than themselves. Venus and Mars cannot be worshipped at the same 
time. It would be considered a complete desecration for a warrior, 
while engaged in war, to entangle himself by another, or more tender 
sentiment. We think this opinion should be duly estimated in the gen- 
eral award which history gives to the chastity of warriors. We would 
record the fact to their praise, as fully as it has been done ; but we would 
subtract something from the jnoiive, in view of his paramount obligations 
of a sacred character, and also the fear of the ridicule of his co-warriors. 

In these leading doctrines of an oral and mystic school of wild philo- 
sophy may be perceived the ground-work of their mythology, and the 
general motive for selecting familiar spirits. Manito, or as the Chippe- 
was pronounce it, mone'do, signifies simply a spirit, and there is neither 
a good nor bad meaning attached to it, when not under the government 
of some adjective or qualifying particle. We think, however, that so far 
as there is a meaning distinct from an invisible existence, the tendency 
is to a bad meaning. A bad meaning is, however, distinctly conveyed 
by the inflection, osh or ish. The particle iceCy added in the same rela- 
tion, indicates a witch. Like numerous other nouns, it has its diminu- 
tive in OS, its plural in wug, and its local form in ing. To add " great," 
as the Jesuit writers did, is far from deciding the moral character of the 
spirit, and hence modern translators prefix gezha, signifying merciful. 
Yet we doubt whether the word God should not be carried boldly into 
translations of the scriptures. In the conference and prayer-room, the 
native teachers use the inclusive pronominal form of 'Father, altogether. 
Truth breaks slowly on the mind, sunk in so profound a darkness as the 
Indians are, and there is danger in retaining the use of words like those 
which they have so long employed in a problematical, if not a deroga- 
tive sense. 

The love for mystery and magic which pervades the native ceremo- 
nies, has affected the forms of their language. They have given it a 
power to impart life to dead masses. Vitality in their forms of utter- 
ance is deeply implanted in all these dialects, which have been examin- 
ed; they provide, by the process of inflection, for keeping a perpetual 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 215 



distinction between the animate and inanimate kingdoms. But where 
vitality and spirituality are so blended as we see them in their doctrine 
of animal souls, the inevitable result must be, either to exalt the princi- 
ple of life, in all the classes of nature, into immortality, or to sink the lat- 
ter to the level of mere organic life. Indian word-makers have taken 
the former dilemma, and peopled their paradise not only with the souls 
of men, but with the souls of every imaginable kind of beasts. Spir- 
ituality is thus clogged with sensual accidents. The human soul 
hungers, and it must have food deposited upon the grave. It suffers 
from cold, and the body must be wrapped about with cloths. It is in 
darkness, and a light must be kindled at the head of the grave. It wan- 
ders through plains and across streams, subject to the providences of 
this life, in quest of its place of enjoyment, and when it reaches it, it 
finds every species of sensual trial, which renders the place not indeed 
a heaven of rest, but another experimental world — very much like this. 
Of punishments, we hear nothing ; rewards are looked for abundantly, 
and the idea that the Master of life, or the merciful Spirit, will be alike 
merciful to all, irrespective of the acts of this life, or the degree of moral 
turpitude, appears to leave for their theology a belief in restorations or 
universahsm. There is nothing to refer them to a Saviour ; that idea 
was beyond their conception, and of course there was no occasion for the 
offices of the Holy Ghost. Darker and more chilling views to a theolo- 
gian, it would be impossible to present. Yet it may be asked, what 
more benign result could have been, or can now be, anticipated in the 
hearts of an ignorant, uninstructed and wandering people, exposed to 
soffe vicissitudes in their lives and fortunes, and without the guidance ot 
the light of Revelation 

Of their mythology proper, we have space only to make a few re- 
marks. Some of the mythologic existences of the Indians admit of 
poetic uses. Manabozho may be considered as a sort of terrene Jove, 
who could perform all things whatever, but lived some time on earth, 
and excelled particularly in feats of strength and manual dexterity. All 
the animals were subject to him. He also survived a deluge, v/hich the 
traditions mention, havin^, climbed a tree on an extreme elevation during 
the prevalence of the waters, and sent down various animals for some 
earth, out of which he re-created the globe. The four cardinal points 
are so many demi-gods, of whom the West, called Kabetjn, has priority 
of age. The East, North and South are deemed to be his sons, by a 
maid who incautiously exposed herself to the west wind. Iagoo 
(lagoo) is the god of the marvellous, and many most extravagant tales 
of forest and domestic adventure are heaped upon him. Kwasind is 
a sort of Samson, who threw a huge mass of rock such as the Cy- 
clops cast at Mentor. Weeng is the god of sleep, who is represented to 
have numerous small emissaries at his service, reminding us ot Pope's 



216 



OP THE ALGONQUINS. 



creation of gnomes. These minute emissaries climb up the forehead, 
and wielding a tiny club, knock individuals to sleep. Pauguk is death, 
in his symbolic attitude. He is armed with a bow and arrows. It would 
be easy to extend this enumeration. 

The mental powers of the Indian constitutes a topic which we do not 
design to discuss. But it must be manifest that some of their peculiari- 
ties are brought out by their system of mythology and spirit-craft. War, 
public policy, hunting, abstinence, endurance and courageous adventure, 
form the leading topics of their mental efforts. These are deemed the 
appropriate themes of men, sages and warriors. But their intellectual 
essays have also a domestic theatre of exhibition. It is here that the 
Indian mind unbends itself and reveals some of its less obvious traits. 
Their public speakers cultivate a particular branch of oratory. They 
are careful in the use of words, and are regarded as standards of purity 
in the language. They appear to have an accurate ear for sounds, and 
delig-ht in rounding off a period, for which the lano;uages afford great fa- 
cilities, by their long and stately words, and multiform inflexions; A 
drift of thought — an elevation of style, is observable in their public speak- 
ing which is dropt in private conversation. Voice, attitude and motion, 
are deemed of the highest consequence. Much of the meaning of their 
expressions is varied by the vehement, subdued, or prolonged tone in 
which they are uttered. In private conversation, on the contrary, all is 
altered. There is an equanimity of tone, and easy vein of narration 
or dialogue, in which the power of mimicry is most strikingly brought 
out. The very voice and words of the supposed speakers, in their ficti- 
tious legends, are assumed. Fear, supplication, timidity or boasting, 
are exactly depicted, and the deepest interest excited. All is ease and 
freedom from restraint. There is nothing of the coldness or severe for- 
mality of the council. Tha^ pipe is put to its ordinary use, and all its 
symbolic sanctity is laid aside with the wampum belt and the often reiter- 
ated state epithets, Nosa" and " Kosinan," i. e. my father and our father. 

Another striking trait of the race is found in their legends and tales. 
Those of the aboriginal race who excel in private conversation, become to 
their tribes oral chroniclers, and are relied on for historical traditions 
as well as tales. It is necessary, in listening to them, to distinguish 
between the gossip and the historian, the narrator of real events, and 
of nursery tales. For they gather together everything from the fabu- 
lous feats of Manebozho and Misshozha, to the hair-breadth escapes 
of a Pontiac, or a Black Hawk. These narrators are generally men of 
a good memory and a certain degree of humor, who have experienced 
vicissitudes, and are cast into the vale of years. In the rehearsal of their 
tales, transformations and transmigrations are a part of the machinery 
relied on ; and some of them are as accurately adapted to the purposes 
of amusement or instruction, as if Zoroaster or Ovid himself had been 



MYTHOLOGY, SUPERSTITIONS, AND RELIGION 217 



consulted in their production. Many objects in the inanimate creation, 
according to these tales, were originally men and women. And nume- 
rous animals had other forms in their first stages of existence, which 
thej'", as well as human beings, forfeited, by the power of necromancy and 
transmigration. The evening star, it is fabled, was formerly a woman. 
An ambitious boy became one of the planets. Three brothers, travel- 
ling in a canoe, were translated into a group of stars. The fox, lynx, 
hare, robin, eagle and numerous other species, retain places in the In- 
dian system of astronomy. The mouse obtained celestial elevation by 
creeping up the rainbow, which Indian story makes a flossy mass of 
bright threads, and by the power of gnawing them, he relieved a captive 
in the sky. It is a coincidence, which we note, that ursa major is called 
by them the bear. 

These legends are not confined to the sky alone. The earth also is a 
fruitful theatre of transformations. The wolf was formerly a boy, who, 
being neglected by his parents, was transformed into this animal. A 
shell, lying on the shore, was transformed to the raccoon. The brains 
of an adulteress were converted into the addikumaig ^ or white fish. 

The power of transformation was variously exercised. It most com- 
monly existed in magicians, of whom Abo, Manabosh or Manabozha, and 
Mishosha, retain much celebrity. The latter possessed a magic canoe 
which would rush forward through the water on the utterance of a charm, 
with a speed that would outstrip the wind. Hundreds of miles were 
performed in as many minutes. The charm which he uttered, consisted 
of a monosyllable, containing one consonant, which does not belong to 
the language ; and this word has no definable meaning. So that the 
language of magic and demonology has one feature in common in all 
ages and with every nation, 

Man, in his common shape, is not alone the subject of their legends. 
The intellectual creations of the Indians admit of the agency of giants 
and fairies. Anak and his progeny could not have created more alarm 
in the minds of the ten faithless spies, than do the race of fabulous 
Weendigos to the Indian tribes. These giants are represented as canni- 
bals, who ate up men, women and children. Indian fairies are of two 
classes, distinguished as the place of their revels is either the land or 
water. Land-fairies are imagined to choose their residences about pro- 
montories, water-falls and solemn groves. The water, besides its appro- 
priate class of aquatic fairies, is supposed to be the residence of a race of 
beings called Nibanaba which have their analogy, except as to sex, in 
the mermaid. The Indian word indicates a male. Ghosts are the ordi- 
nary machinery in their tales of terror and mystery. There is, perhaps, 
a glimmering of the idea of retributive justice in the belief that ghosts 
and spirits are capable of existing in fire. 



INDIAN ARROW HEADS, &c. 



By far the most numerous relics of the Red Race, now found in those 
parts of our countrj'- from which it has disappeared, are the small stone? 
with which they headed their arrows. Being made of the most durable 
substances, they have generally remained in the soil, unaffected by time 
and the changes of season. They most abound in those rich meadows 
which border some of our rivers, and in other spots of peculiar ferliliiy, 
though of less extent, where the pasture, or other attractions, collected 
game for the Red men. The stones most commonly used were quartz 
and flint, which were preferred on account of the facility of shaping 
them, the keenness of the points and edges, which they readily present 
under the blows of a skilful manufacturer, as well as their superior hard- 
ness and imperishable nature. Multitudes of specimens still exist, which 
show the various forms and sizes to which the Red men reduced stones of 
these kinds : and they e::cite our admiration, by their perfect state of pre- 
servation, as w^ell by the skilfulness of their manufacture. 

Other stones, however, were not unfrequently used : and a collection 
which we have been making for many years, presents a considerable 
variety of materials, as well as of sizes, shapes and colors. Hard sand- 
stone, trap or graacke, jasper and chalcedony, appear occasionally ; 
some almost transparent. One of the larger size is made of steatite, and 
smooth, as if cut or scraped with a knife, contrary to the common method^ 
of gradually chipping off small fragments of more brittle stone, by light 
blows' often repeated. These arrow heads were fastened to the shaft, by 
inserting the butt into the split end, and t3dng round it a string of deer's 
sinews. A groove or depression is eommonl}^ observable in the stone, 
designed to receive the string. But it is sometimes difficult to imagine 
how the fastening was effected, as some perfect arrow-heads show no such 
depressions, and their forms are not well adapted to such a purpose. This 
peculiarity, however, is most frequently to be observed in specimens of 
small size, the larger, and especially such as are commonly supposed to 
have been the heads of spears, being usually well shaped for tying. 

It is remarkable that some spots have been found, where such relics 
were surprizingly numerous. In Hartford, Connecticut, about thirty 
years ago, many were picked up in a garden, at the corner of Front and 
Mill streets. The spot was indeed on the bank of the Little River, pro- 
bably at the head of Indian Canoe navigation : but yet no rational con- 
jecture could be formed, to account for the discovery, except one. It was con- 
cluded that the place was an ancient burying ground. Many bits of coarse 
earthen- ware were found, such as are common in many parts of the coun- 
try. About two Tniles below Middletown, Connecticut, on the slope of a 

218 



INDIAN ARROW HEADS, ETC. 



219 



hill on the southern side of the Narrows, we discovered, some years since, 
a great number of small fragments of white quartz, scattered thickly over 
the surface of the ground, perhaps for half an acre. Among them were 
several arrowheads of various forms, most of them imperfect, and many 
pieces of stone, which at first sight resembled them, but, on closer inspec- 
tion, seemed to have been designed for arrow heads, but spoiled in the 
making. Some had one good edge, or a point or barb, while the other parts 
of the same stones shovv^ed only the natural form and fracture. In many in- 
stances, it w^as easy to see that the workman might well have been discour- 
aged from proceeding any farther, by a flaw, a break or the nature of the 
stone. Our conclusion was, that the spot had long been a place where 
Indian arrow heads were made, and that we saw around us the refuse 
fragments rejected by the workmen. Other spots have been heard of 
resembling this. 

If such rehcs were found nowhere else but in our own country, they 
would be curious, and worthy of preservation and attention : but it is an 
interesting fact, not however generally known, that they exist in many 
other parts of the world. Stone arrow and spear heads have been found 
in England for hundreds of years, and are believed to have been made 
and used by the Britons, who, in respect to civilization, were nearly on a 
level with our Indians. These relics are called by the common people 
Celts, from the race whose memory they recal ; and particular accounts 
of them are given, with drawings, in several antiquarian works. They 
bear a striking resemblance to our Indian arrow heads ; and many of 
them could be hardly, if at all, distinguished from those of America. 

African arrows have been brought to this country, in which the points 
were of the same forms and materials, and fastened in the same manner. 
A.bout twelve years ago a vessel from Stonington was attacked by a party 
of Patagonians, who threw arrows on board. One of these which we 
procured, was pointed with a head of milky quartz, exactly corresponding 
with specimens picked up in New England. 

Among the relics found in excavating the low mounds on the plain of 
JVEarathon, as we were informed by one of our countrymen, who was at 
Athens some years ago, there were spear heads made of flint, which, he 
declared, were like those he had often seen ploughed up in his native 
fields. These, it was conjectured, might have been among the weapons 
of some of the rude Scythians in the Persian army, which met its defeat 
on that celebrated battle ground. 

A negro, from an obscure group of islands, just north of New Guinea, 
in describing the weapons in use among his countrymen, drew the forms 
of spear heads, which he said were often made of stones ; and, when 
shown specimens from our collection, declared that they were very much 
like them. 

It has been thought, that certain instruments would naturally be iaven 



220 



INDIAN ARROW HEADS, ETC. 



ted by men in particular states of society and under certain circumstances, 
as tlie result of their wants and the means at hand to supply them. It is 
not, however, always easy to reconcile this doctrine with fa^.ts. For ex- 
ample, the black race of the islands north of New Holland, (of which so 
little is yet known,) appear to require the use of the bow as much as any 
other savage people, yet they are entirely ignorant of it, though it has 
been thought one of the simple, most natural and most indispensable 
instruments in such a condition of society. 

We are therefore left in doubt, in the present state of our knowledge, 
whether the manufacture and use of stone arrow heads have been so ex- 
tensively diffused over the globe by repeated inventions, or by an inter- 
course between portions of the human race long since ceased, or by both 
causes. To whichever of these opinions we may incline, the subject 
must still appear to us worthy of investigation, as the history of these 
relics must necessarily be closely connected with that of different families 
and races of men in every continent and in every zone. 

We would invite particular attention to the position and circumstances 
of Indian remains which may hereafter be found ; and would express a 
wish that they might be recorded and made known. Our newspapers 
offer a most favorable vehicle for the communication of such discoveries 
and observations, and our editors generally must have taste and judgmeni 
enough to give room for them. 

It was remarked in some of our publications a few years ago, that no 
unequivocal remains of the Red men had yet been discovered in the earth, 
below the most recent strata of soil, excepting cases in which they had 
been buried in graves, &c. Perhaps later observations may furnish evi- 
dence of the longer presence of that race on our continent than such a 
statement countenances. 

One of the most interesting objects of enquiry, with some antiquaries, 
is whether there are any ancient indications of Alphabetical writing in 
our continent. A small stone found in the Grave-Creek Mound, and 
others of a, more doubtful character, are quite sufficient to awaken interest 
and stimulate enquiry. 

A. few specimens of rude sculpture and drawing have been found in 
different parts or the U. States ; and shells, ornaments, &c., evidently 
brought from great distances. There may be others, known to individu- 
als, of xvhich antiquaries are not aware. After perusing the foregomg 
pages, It will be easy to realize that all such remains may be worthy of 
attention. Not only copies should be made and dimensions taken, but 
descriptions should be written, local information and traditions collected, 
measures taken to preserve the originals, and some notice given which 
may reach persons interested in such subjects.— E. 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



No. 1. 

The North American tribes have the elements of music and poetry. 
Their war songs frequently contain flights of the finest heroic sentiment, 
clothed in poetic imagery. And numbers of the addresses of the speak- 
ers, both occasional and public, abound in eloquent and poetic thought. 
" We would anticipate eloquence," observes a modern American writer, 
" from an Indian. He has animating remembrances — a poetry of lan- 
guage, which exacts rich and apposite metaphorical allusions, even for 
ordinary conversation — a mind which, like his body, has never been 
trammelled and mechanized by the formalities of society, and passions 
which, from the very outward restraint imposed upon them, burn more 
fiercely within." Yet, it will be found that the records of our litera- 
ture, scattered as they are, in periodicals and ephemeral publications, 
rather than m works of professed research, are meagre and barren, on 
these topics. One of the first things we hear of the Indians, after their 
discovery, is their proneness to singing and dancing. But however char- 
acteristic these traits may be, and we think they are eminently so, it has 
fallen to the lot of but few to put on record specimens, which may be ap- 
pealed to, as evidences of the current opinion, on these heads. With fa- 
vourable opnortunities of observation among the tribes, we have but to 
ada our testimony to tne difficulties of making collections in these depart- 
ments, which shall not compromit the intellectual character of the tribes, 
whose efforts are always oral, and very commonly extemporaneous. 
These difficulties arise from the want of suitable interpreters, the remote- 
ness of the points at which observations must be made, the heavy demands 
made upon hours of leisure or business by such inquiries, and the incon- 
venience of making notes and detailed memoranda on the spot. The 
little that it is in our power to offer, will therefore be submitted as contri- 
butions to an inquiry which is quite in its infancy, and rather with the 
hope of exciting others to future labours, than of gratifying, to any extent, 
an enlightened curiosity on the subject. 

Dancing is both an amusement and a religious observance, among the 
American Indians, and is known to constitute one of the most wide spread 
traits in their manners and customs. It is accompanied, in all cases, with 
singing, and, omitting a few cases, with the beating of time on instru- 
ments. Tribes the most diverse in language, and situated at the greatest 
distances apart, concur in this. It is believed to be the ordinary mode of 
expressing intense passion, or feeling on any subject, and it is a custom 

221 



222 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



which has been persevered in, with the least variation, through all. the 
phases of their history, and probably exists among- the remote tribes, pre- 
cisely at this time, as it did in the era of Columbus. It is observed to be 
the last thing- abandoned by bands and individuals, in their progress to 
civilization and Christianity. So true is this, that it may be regarded as 
one of the best practical proofs of their advance, to find the native in- 
struments and music thrown by, and the custom, abandoned. 

Every one has heard of the war dance, the medicine dance, the wabeno 
dance, the dance of honour (generally called the begging dance,) and 
various others, each of which has its appropriate movements, its air, and 
its words. There is no feast, and no religious ceremony, among them, 
which is not attended with dancing and songs. Thanks are thus ex- 
pressed for success in hunting, for triumphs in war, and for ordinary 
providential cares. Public opinion is called to pressing objects by a 
dance, at which addresses are made, and in fact, moral instructions and 
advice are given to the young, in the course of their being assembled at 
social feasts and dances. Dancing is indeed the common resource, when- 
ever the mass of Indian mind is to be acted on. And it thus stands 
viewed in its necessary connection with the songs and addresses, in the 
room of the press, the newspaper, and the periodical. The priests and 
prophets have, more than any other class, cultivated their national songs 
and dances, and may be regarded as the skalds and poets of the tribes. 
They are generally the composers of the songs, and the leaders in the 
dance and ceremonies, and it is found, that their memories are the best 
stored, not only with the sacred songs and chants, but also with the tradi- 
tions, and general lore of the tribes. 

Dancing is thus interwoven throughout the whole texture of Indian so- 
ciety, so that there is scarcely an event important or trivial, private or 
public, v/hich is not connected, more or less intimately, with this rite. 
The instances where singing is adopted, without dancing, are nearly con- 
fined to occurrences of a domestic character. Among these, are wails for 
the dead, and love songs of a simple and plaintive character. Maternal 
affection evinces itself, by singing words, to a cheerful air, over the slum- 
bers of the child, which, being suspended in a kind of cradle receives, at 
the same time avibratory motion. Children have likewise certain chants, 
which they utter in the evenings, while playing around the lodge door, 
or at other seasons of youthful hilarity. Some of the Indian fables are 
in the shape of duets, and the songs introduced in narrating their ficti- 
tious tales, are always sung in the recital. 

Their instruments of music are few and simple. The only wind in- 
strument existing among them is the Pibbegwon, a kind of flute, resem- 
bling in simplicity the Arcadian pipe. It is commonly made of two semi- 
cylindrical pieces of cedar, united with fish glue, and having a snake skin, 
in a wet state, drawn tightly over it, to prevent its cracking. The holes 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGSj AND POETRY. 



223 



are eight in number, and are perforated by means of a bit of heated iron. 
It is blov« n like the flagolet, and has a similar orifice or moutn piece. 

The Taywa'egun, (struck-sound-instrument,) is a tamborine, or one- 
headed drum, and is made by adjusting a skin to one end of the section 
of a moderate sized hollow tree. When a heavier sound is required, a 
tree of larger circumference is chosen, and both ends closed with skins. 
The latter is called Mittigv^hjIvEek. i. e. Wood-Kettle- Drum, and is appro- 
priately used in religious ceremonies, but is not, perhaps, confined to this 
occasion. 

To these may be added a fourth instrument, called the Sheshegwon, or 
Rattle, which is constructed in various ways, according to the purpose or 
means of the maker. Sometimes it is made of animal bladder, from 
which the name is derived, sometimes of a wild gourd; in others, by at- 
taching the dried hoofs of the deer to a stick. This instrument is em- 
ployed both to mark time, and to produce variety in sound. 

ORAL COMPOSITION. 

Common as the Indian songs are, it is found to be no ordinary acqui- 
sition to obtain accurate specimens of them. Even after the difficulties 
of the notation have been accomplished, it is not easy to satisfy the re- 
quisitions of a correct taste and judgment, in their exhibition. There is 
always a lingering fear of misapprehension, or misconception, on the part 
of the interpreter — or of some things being withheld by the never sleep- 
ing suspicion, or the superstitious fear of disclosure, on the part of the 
Indian. To these must be added, the idiomatic and imaginative peculiari- 
ties of this species of wild composition — so very different from every no- 
tion of English versification. In the first place there is no unity of theme, 
or plot, unless it be that the subject, war for instance, is kept in the singer's 
mind. In the next place both the narration and the description, when 
introduced, is very imperfect, broken, or disjointed. Prominent ideas 
flash out, and are dropped. These are often most striking and beauti- 
ful, but we wait in vain for any sequence. A brief allusion — a shinin g 
symbol, a burst of feeling or passion, a fine sentiment, or a bold assertion, 
come in as so many independent parts, and there is but little in the com- 
position to indicate the leading theme which is, as it were, kept in mental 
reserve, by the singer. Popular, or favourite expressions are often re- 
peated, often transposed, and often exhibited with some new shade of 
meaning. The structure and flexibility of the language is highly favour- 
able to this kind of wild improvisation. But it is difficult to translate, and 
next to impossible to preserve its spirit. Two languages more unlike in 
all their leading characteristics, than the English and the Indian were 
never brought into contact. The one monosyllabic, and nearly without 
mflections — the other polysyllabic, polysynthetic and so full of inflections 



224 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



of every imaginative kind, as to be completely transpositive — the one 
from the north of Europe, the other, probably, from Central Asia, it would 
seem that these families of the human race, had not wandered wider 
apart, in their location, than they have in the sounds of their language, 
the accidence of their grammar and the definition of their words. So 
that to find equivalent single words in translation, appears often as hope- 
less as the quadrature of the circle. 

The great store-house of Indian imagery is the heavens. The clouds, 
the planets, the sun, and m.oon, the phenomena of lightning, thunder, elec- 
tricity, aerial sounds, electric or atmospheric, and the endless variety pro- 
duced in the heavens by light and shade, and by elemental action, — these 
constitute the fruitful themes of allusion in their songs and poetic chants. 
But they are mere allusions, or broken description, like touches on the 
canvass, without being united to produce a perfect object. The strokes 
may be those of a master, and the colouring exquisite ; but without the 
art to draw, or the skill to connect, it will still remain but a shapeless mass 

In war excursions great attention is paid to the flight of birds, particularly 
those of the carnivorous species, which are deemed typical of war and bra-- 
very, and their wing and tail feathers are appropriated as marks of honor, by 
the successful warrior. When the minds of a war party have been roused 
up to the subject, and they are prepared to give utterance to their feelings 
by singing and dancing, they are naturally led to appeal to the agency 
of this class of birds. Hence the frequent allusions to them, in their 
songs. The following stanza is made up of expressions brought into con- 
nection, from different fragments, but expresses no more than the native 
sentiments : 

The eagles scream on high, 

They whet their forked beaks, 
Raise — raise the battle cry, 

'Tis fame our leader seeks. 

Generally the expressions are of an exalted and poetic character, but 
the remark before made of their efforts in song, being discontinuous and 
abrupt, apply with peculiar force to the war songs. To speak of a brave 
man — of a battle — or the scene of a battle, or of the hovering of birds of 
prey above it, appears sufficient to bring up to the warrior's mind, all the 
details consequent on personal bravery or heroic achievement. It would 
naturally be expected, that they should delight to dwell on scenes of car- 
nage and blood : but however this may be, all such details are omitted or 
suppressed in their war songs, which only excite ideas of noble darings 

The birds of the brave take a flight round the sky, 

They cross the enemy's line, 
Full happy am I — that my body should fall, 

Where brave men love to die. 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 2^^^ 

Very little effort in the collocation and expansion of some of their senti- 
ments, would impart to these bold and unfettered raphsodies, an attractive 
form, among polished war songs. 

The strain in which these measures are sung, is generally slow and 
grave in its commencement and progress, and terminates in the highest 
note. While the words admit of change, and are marked by all the fluc- 
tuation of extempore composition, the air and the chorus appear to be per- 
manent, consisting not only of a graduated succession of fixed sounds, 
but, always exact in their enunciation, their quantity, and their wild and 
startling musical expression. It has always appeared to me that the In- 
dian music is marked by a nationality, above many other traits, and it is 
a subject inviting future attention. It is certain that the Indian ear is ex- 
act in noting musical sounds, and in marking and beating time. But little 
observation at their dances, will be sufficient to establish this fact. Nor 
is it less certain, by attention to the philology of their language, that they 
are exact in their laws of euphony, and syllabical quantity. How this 
remark may consist with the use of unmeasured and fluctuating poetry 
in their songs, it may require studied attention to answer. It is to be ob- 
served, however, that these songs are rather recited^ or chanted^ than 
sung. Increments of the chorus are not unfrequently interspersed, in the 
body of the line, which would otherwise appear deficient in quantity ; and 
perhaps rules of metre may be found, by subsequent research, which are 
not obvious, or have been concealed by the scantiness of the materials, on 
this head, which have been examined. To determine the airs and cho- 
ruses and the character of the music, will prove one of the greatest facil- 
ities to this inquiry. Most of the graver pieces, which have been written 
out, are arranged in metres of sixes, sevens, and eights. The lighter 
chanis are in threes or fours, and consist of iambics and trochees irregu- 
larly. Those who have translated hymns into the various languages, 
have followed the English metres, not always without the necessity of elis- 
ion, or employing constrained or crampt modes of expression. A worse 
system could not have been adopted to show Indian sentiment. The mu- 
sic in all these cases has been like fetters to the free, wild thoughts of the 
native singer. As a general criticism upon these translations, it may be 
remarked that they are often far from being literal, and often omit parts 
of the original. On the other hand, by throwing away adjectives, in a great 
degree, and dropping all incidental or side thoughts, and confining the 
Indian to the leading thought or sentiment, they are, sometimes, rendered 
more simple, appropriate, and effective. Finally, whatever cultivated 
minds among the Indians, or their descendants may have done, it is quite 
evident to me, from the attention I have been able to give the subject, 
that the native compositions were without metre. The natives appear to 
have sung a sufficient number of syllables to comply with the air, and 
effected the necessary pauses, for sense or sound, by either slurring over, 

15 



226 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



and thus shortening, or by throwing in floating particles of the language, 
to eke out the quantity, taken either from the chorus, o»- from the general 
auxiliary forms of the vocabulary. 

Rhyme is permitted by the similarity of the sounds from which the vo- 
cabulary is formed, but the structure of the language does not appear to 
admit of its being successfully developed in this manner. Its form^ are 
too cumbrous for regularly recurring expressions, subjected at onct to the 
laws of metre and rhyme. The instances of rhyme that have been ob- 
served in the native songs are few, and appear to be the result of the for- 
tuitous positions of words, rather than of art. The following juvenile 
see-saw is one of the most perfect specimens noticed, being exact in both 
particulars : 

Ne osh im aun 
Ne way be naun. 

These are expressions uttered on sliding a carved stick down snow 
banks, or over a glazed surface of ice, in the appropriate season ; and they 
may be rendered with nearly literal exactness, thus: 

My sliding stick 

1 send quick — quick. 

Not less accurate in the rhyme, but at lines of six and eight feet, which 
might perhaps be exhibited unbroken, is the following couplet of a war 
sdng : 

Au pit she Mon e tog 

Ne mud wa wa wau we ne gog. 

The Spirit on high, 
Repeats my warlike name. 

In the translation of hymns, made during the modern period of mis- 
sionary effort, there has been no general attempt to secure rhyme ; and as 
these translations are generally due to educated natives, under the inspec- 
tion and with the critical aid of the missionary, they have evinced a true 
conception of the genius of the language, by the omission of this acci- 
dent. Eliot, who translated the psalms of David into the iVTassachusetts 
language, which were first printed in 1661, appears to have deemed it im- 
portant enough to aim at its attainment : but an examination of the work, 
now before us, gives but little encouragement to others to follow,his ex- 
ample, at least while the languages remain in their present rude and un- 
cultivated state. The following is the XXIII Psalm from this version : 

1. Mar teag nukquenaabikoo 
shepse nanaauk God. 
Nussepsinwahik ashkoshqut 
mutinuk ohtopagod 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



227 



2. Nagum nukketeahog kounoh 

wutomohkinuh wonk 
Nutuss oounuk ut sampoi may 
newutch oowesnonk. 

3. Wutookauhtamut pomushaon 

muppoconk oonauhkoe 
Woskehettuonk mo nukqueh tamoo 
newutch koowetomah : 

4. Kuppogkomunk kutanwohon 

nish noonenehikquog 
Koonochoo hkah anquabhettit 
wame nummatwomog 

5. Kussussequnum nuppuhkuk 

weetepummee nashpea 
Wonk vvoi God nootallamwaitch 
pomponetupohs hau 

6. OOniyeuonk monaneteonk 

nutasukkonkqunash 
Tohsohke pomantani wekit God 
michem nuttain pish *. 

This appears to have been rendered from the version of the psalms ap- 
pended to an old edition of King James' Bible of 1611, and not from the 
versification of Watts. By comparing it with this, as exhibited below, 
ihere will be found the same metre, eights and sixes, the same syllabical 
quantity, (if the notation be rightly conceived,) and the same coincidence 
of rhyme at the second and fourth lines of each verse ; although it re- 
quired an additional verse to express the entire psalm. It could therefore 
be sung to the ordinary tunes in use in Eliot's time, and, taken in con- 
nection with his entire version, including the Old and New Testament, 
evinces a degree of patient assiduity on the part of that eminent mission- 
ary, which is truly astonishing : 

The Lord is my shepherd, I'll not want ; 

2. He makes me down to lie 
In pastures green : he leadeth me 

the quiet waters by. 

3. My soul he doth restore aga t 
and me to walk doth make 
Within the paths of righteousness 
E'en for his own name's sake. 

^ EHiot employed the fi^re 8, set horizontally, to express a peculiar sound . otherwMt 
he used the English alphabet in its ordinary powers. 



.NDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY.^ 



4. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, 

yet will I fear none ill ; 
For thou art with me and thy rod 
and staff me comfort still. 

5. My table thou hast furnished 

in presence of my foes ; 
My head thou dost with oil annoint, 
and my cup overflows. 

6. Goodness and mercy all my life 

shall surely follow me ; 
And in God's house forevermore 
my dwelling place shall be. 

The harmony of numbers has always detracted from the plain senses 
and the piety of thought, of the scriptures, which is the probable cause of 
so many failures on the subject. In the instance of this Psalm, it will be 
observed, by a comparison, that Watts, who has so generally succeeded, 
does not come up, in any respect, to the full literal meaning of the origi- 
nal, which is well preserved, with the requisite harmony, in the old ver» 
sion. 

There is one species of oral composition existing among all the tribes^ 
which, from its peculiarities, deserves to be separately mentioned. I al- 
lude to the hieratic chants, choruses and incantations of their profes.*ed 
prophets, medicine men and jugglers — constituting, as these men do, a d^s- 
tinct order in Indian society, who are entitled by their supposed skill, wis- 
dom or sanctity, to exercise the offices of a priesthood. Affecting mys- 
tery in the discharge of their functions, their songs and choruses ar% 
couched in language which is studiously obscure, oftentimes cabalistic, 
and generally not well understood by any but professed initiates. 

Nothing, however, in this department of my inquiries, has opened a 
more pleasing view of society, exposed to the bitter vicissitudes of Indian 
life, than the little domestic chants of mothers, and the poetic see-saws of 
children, of which specimens are furnished. These show the universal- 
ity of the sentiments of natural affection, and supply another proof, were 
any wanting, to demonstrate that it is only ignorance, indolence and pov- 
erty, that sink the human character, and create the leading distinctions 
among the races of men. Were these affections cultivated, and children 
early taught the principles of virtue and rectitude, and the maxims of in- 
dustry, order and cleanliness, there is no doubt that the mass of Indian 
society would be meliorated in a comparatively short period ; and by a 
continuance of efforts soon exalted from that state of degradation, of 
which the want of letters and religion have been the principal causes. 

In presenting these specimens of songs, gathered among the recesses 
of the forest, it is hoped it will not be overlooked, by the reader, that they 



INDIAN MUSIC, SONGS, AND POETRY. 



229 



are submitted as facts or materials^ in the mental condition of the tribes, 
and not as evidences of attainment in the arts of metre and melody, which 
will bear to be admitted or even criticised by the side of the refined poetry 
of civilized nations. And above all, not as efforts to turn Indian senti- 
ments to account, in original composition. No such idea is entertained. 
If materials be supplied from which some judgment maybe formed of the 
actual state of these songs and rude oral compositions, or improvisations, 
the extent of the object will have been attained. But even here, there is 
less, with the exception of a single department, i. e. versification and com 
position by cultivated natives, than it was hoped to furnish. And this 
little, has been the result of a species of labour, in the collection, quite dis- 
proportionate to the result. It is hoped at least, that it may indicate the 
mode in which such collections may be made, among the tribes, and be- 
come the means of eliciting materials more worthy of attention. 

This much seemed necessary to be said in introducing the following 
specimen.s, that there might not appear, to the reader, to be an undue esti- 
mate placed on the literary value of these contributions, and translations, 
while the main object is, to exhibit them in the series, as illustrations of 
the mental peculiarities of the tribes. To dismiss them, however, with a 
bare, frigid word for word translation, such as is required for the pur- 
poses of philological comparison, would by no means do justice to them, 
nor convey, in any tolerable degree, the actual sentiments in the minds of 
the Indians. That the opposite error might not, at the same time, be run 
into, and the reader be deprived altogether of this means of comparison, 
a number of the pieces are left with literal prose translations, word for 
word as near as the two languages will permit. Others exhibit both a 
literal, and a versified translation. 



All the North American Indians know that there is a God ; but their 
priests teach them that the devil is a God, and as he is believed to be very 
malignant, it is the great object of their ceremonies and sacrifices, to 
appease him. 

The Indians formerly worshipped the Sun, as the symbol of divine 
intelligence. 

Fire is an unexplained mystery to the Indian ; he regards it as a con- 
necting link between the natural and spiritual world. His traditionary 
lore denotes this. 

Zoroaster says : " When you behold secret fire, without form, shining 
flashingly through the depths of the whole world — hear the voice of 
fire." One might suppose this t ? have been uttered by a North Ameri- 
can Indian. 



CHANT TO THE FIRE-FLY. 



In the hot summer evenings, the children of the Chippewa Algon- 
quins, along the shores of the upper lakes, and in the northern latitudes, 
frequently assemble before their parents' lodges, and amuse themselves by 
little chants of various kinds, with shouts and wild dancing. Attracted 
by such shouts of merriment and gambols, I walked out one evening, to 
a green lawn skirting the edge of the St. Mary's river, with the fall in 
full view, to get hold of the meaning of some of these chants. The air 
and the plain were literally sparkling with the phosphorescent light of the 
fire-fly. By dint of attention, repeated on one or two occasions, the fol- 
lowing succession of words was caught. They were addressed to this 
insect : 

Wau wau tay see 1 

Wau wau tay see ! 

E mow e shin 

Tshe bwau ne baun-e wee ! 

Be eghaun — be eghaun — ewee ! 

Wa Wau tay see ! 

Wa wau tay see ! 

Was sa koon ain je gun 

Was sa koon ain je gun. 

LITERAL TRANSLATION. 

Flittmg-white-fire-insect ! waving-white-fire-bug ! give me light before 
I go to bed ! give me light before I go to sleep. Come, little dancing *- 
white-fire-bug ! Come little flitting- white-fire-beast ! Light me with your 
bright white-flame-instrument — your little candle f. 

Metre there was none, at least, of a regular character : they were the 
wild improvisations of children in a merry mood. 

* In giving the particle wa, the various meanings of " flitting," " waving," and 
" dancing," the Indian idiom is fully preserved. The final particle see, in the term 
wa wa tai see, is from the generic root asee, meaning a living creature, or created form, 
not man. By prefixing Ahw to the root, we have the whole class of quadrupeds, and 
by pen, the whole class of birds, &lq.. The Odjibwa Algonquin term for a candle, was 
8a koon ain je gun, is literally rendered from its elements — " bright — white — flamed — 
instrument." It is by the very concrete character of these compounds that so much 
meaning results from a few words, and so considerable a latitude in translation is given 
to Indian words generally. 

[t Fire-fly, fire-fly ! bright little thing, 

Light me to bed, and my song I will sing. 

Give me your light, as you fly o'er my head, 

That I may merrily go to my bed. 

Give me your light o'er the grass as you creep, 

That I may joyfully go to my sleep. 

Come little fire -fly — come little beast — 

Come ! and I'll make you to-morrow a feast. 

Come little candle that flies as I sing. 

Bright little fairy-bug — night's little king ; 

Come, and I'll dance as you guide me along, 

Come, and I'll pay you, my bug, with a song.} 



230 



ETHNOLOGY. 



SCHOOLCRAFT'S AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA, OR ETHNOLOGICAL 
GAZETTEER OF THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE AMERICAN 
CONTINENT, NORTH AND SOUTH, COMPRISING THEIR HISTORY, 
GEOGRAPHY, AND NOMENCLATURE, FROM THE DISCOVERY IN 
1492, TO THE PRESENT PERIOD. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

A PROSPKCTUs for this work was issued in 1842. While the title is 
slightly modified, the design and plan of its execution have not been 
essentiilly changed. The principal object aimed at, under the general 
idea of the history and geography of the Aboriginal Race, is to furnish a 
general and standard reference-book, or short encyclopaedia of topics rela- 
tive to the entire race, alphabetically arranged. By the insertion of the 
name of each family of tribes, nation, sub-tribe, or important clan, the 
occasion will be presented of noticing the leading or characteristic events, 
in their history, numbers, government, religion, languages, arts or distinc- 
tive character. 

Where the scene or era of their expansion, growth and decay has 
been so extensive, embracing as it does, the widest bounds and remotest 
periods, their antiquities have also called for a passing notice. Nor could 
any thing like a satisfactory accomplishment of the plan be effected, 
without succinct notices of the lives and achievements of their principal 
chiefs, rulers, and leading personages. 

L-\nguage is an important means of denoting the intricate thread of 
history in savage nations. Mr. Pritchard considers it more important than 
physiological structure and peculiarities. It is, at least, found often to 
reveal ethnological affinities, where both the physical type, and the light 
of tralition, afford but little aid. The words and names of a people, are 
so many clut s to their thoughts and intellectual structure ; this branch of 
the subject, indeed, formed the original germ of the present plan, which 
was at first simply geographical, and has been rather expanded and built 
upon. th;in. if we may so say, supplied the garniture of the edifice. In a 
cl;iss of trnnspositive linguages, which are very rich in their combinations, 
and tiin.it'S of concentrated ilfscripiion, it must needs happen, that the names 
pf phices would often recall both associations and descriptions of deep 

2S1 



23' 



ETHNOLOGY. 



iif irest in contemplating the fate and fortunes of this unfortunate race 
"^ /ithout intruding upon the reader disquisitions which would be out of 
yllce, no opportunity has been omitted, from the consideration of their 
iiames, to throw around the sites of their former or present residence, thi« 
species of interest. 

But half the work would have been done, it is conceived, to have con- 
fined the work to North America ; and it must necessarily have lost, by 
such a limitation, more than half its interest. We are just beginning in 
truth to comprehend the true character and bearing of that unique type of 
civilization which existed in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan. The rude hand 
with which these embryo kingdoms of the native race were overturned, 
in consequence of their horrid idolatries, necessarily led to the destruction 
of much of their monumental, and so far as their picture writing reached, 
some of their historical materials, of both of which, we now feel the 
want. It is some relief, to know, as the researches of Mr. Gallatin, 
which are now in progress, demonstrate, that by far the greatest amount 
of the ancient Mexican picture writings, as they are embraced in the 
elaborate work of Lord Kingsborough, relate to their mythology and 
superstitions, and are of no historical value whatever. And if the portions 
destroyed in the Mexican and Peruvian conquests, were as liberally inter- 
spersed with similar evidences of their wild polytheism, shocking man- 
ners, and degraded worship, neither chronology nor history have so much 
to lament. 

The early, strong and continued exertions which were made by the 
conquerors to replace this system of gross superstition and idolatry, hy 
the Romish ritual, filled Mexico and South America with missions 
of the Catholic Church, which were generally under the charge of zealous^ 
and sometimes of learned and liberal-spirited superintendants, who hav& 
accumulated facts respecting the character and former condition of the 
rape. These missions, which were generally spread parallel to the sea 
coasts of the Atlantic and Pacific, reaching inland along the banks of the 
great rivers and plains, have confessedly done much to ameliorate the 
manners and condition of the native race, to foster a spirit of industi y, an»l 
to enlighten their minds. Still, it is scarcely known, that numerous and 
powerful tribes, stretching through wide districts of the Andes and the 
Cordilleras, never submitted to the conqueror, and yet exist in their origi- 
nal state of barbarism. 

In this department of inquiry, the geographical and historical work of 
De Alcedo, which, so far as the Spanish and Portuguese missions are 
concerned, is both elaborate and complete in its details, has been taken as 
a basis. No one can write of South America and its native tribes, without 
reference to Humboldt. Other standard writers have been consulted, to 
give this part of the work as much value as possible, not excepting the 
latest voyages and travels. The design has been, without aiming at too 



ETH5N0L0GY. 



mttch, to compress a body of leading and characteristic facts, in the shoi^est 
practicable compass, which should, at the same time, present an ethnologi- 
cal view of the various families and groups of the race. 

nin each department of inquiry, which admitted of it, the author hai 
availed himself of such sources and opportunities of personal observation 
and experience, as his long residence in the Indian territories, and his 
study of the Indian history have afforded. And he is not without the hope, 
that his inquiries and researches on this head may be found to be such as 
to merit approval. 



A. 

Ab, often pronounced with the sound of we, before it, — a particle which, 
in geographical names, in the family of the Algonquin dialects, denote* 
light, or the east. It is also the radix of the verb wab, to see, as well as of 
the derivatives, a-ab, an eye-ball, and wabishka, a white substance, &c., 
—ideas which either in their origin or application, are closely allied. 

Abacaris, a settlement of Indians in the Portuguese possessions of the 
province of Amazon. These people derive their name from a lake, upon 
which they reside. It is a peculiarity of this lake, that it has its outlet 
into the river Madiera which, after flowing out of the province turns about 
and again enters it, forming, in this involution, the large and fertile island 
of Topanambes. This tribe is under the instruction of the Carmelites. 
They retain many of their early peculiarities of manners and modes of 
of life. They subsist by the cultivation of maize, and by taking fish in the 
waters of the Abacaris ; or Abacactes in addition to these means, they 
r^ly upon tropical fruits. The latest notices of them come down to 1789. 
But little is known of their numbers, or present condition. 

Abaches, or Apaches, an erratic tribe of Indians, who infest the prairies 
of western Texas and New Mexico. They are supposed by some, to con- 
sist of not less than 15,000 souls. They are divided into petty bands, 
known under various names. They are the most vagrant of all the wild 
hunter tribes of the general area denoted. They do not live in fixed abodes, 
but shift about in search of game or plunder, and are deemed a pest by 
, the Santa Fe traders. They raise nothing and manufacture nothing. 
Those of them who are east of the Rio del Norte, subsist on the baked 
root of the mauguey, and a similar plant called Mezcal, and hence they 
are called Mezcaleros. 

Another division of them, and by far the greatest, rove west of that 
stream, where they are called Coyoteros, from their habit of eating the 
coyote, or prairie wolf They extend west into California and Sonora, 
They bear a bad character wherever they are known. If on the outskirts 



23, 



ETHNOEOGY. 



^fiie ranches and haciendas, they steal cattle and sheep. If on the wide 
g/d destitute plains which they traverse, they thieve and murder. Some- 
imes they are pursued and punished ; more frequently, they escape. The 
Mexican authorities keep some sort of terms with them by treaties, which 
the vagrants, however, break and disregard, whenever they are excited by 
hunger, or the lust of plunder. For Indians bearing the name, formerly 
from the U. States, see Apaches. 

Abaco, one of the Bahama islands. The native inhabitants of this, and 
the adjacent groupes of islands, were, early after the discovery, transported 
to the main, to work in the mines. In 1788 this island, known to nautical 
men as the locality of the Hole in the Wall, had a population of 50 whites, 
and 2i)0 Africans. 

Abacooche, or Coosa, a stream rising in Georgia. It flows into 
Alabama, and after uniting with the Tallapoosa, a few miles below We- 
tumpka it forms the Alabama river. The word is, apparently, derived 
from Oscooche, one of the four bands into which the Muscogees, were 
anciently divided. 

Abanakee, or Eastlanders, a distinct people, consisting of a plurality 
of tribes, who formerly occupied the extreme north eastern part of the 
United States. The word is variously written by early writers. See 
Abenakies, Abernaquis, Wabunakies. 

Abancay, the capital of a province of the same name 20 leagues from 
Cuzco, in Peru. It is memorable for the victories gained in the vicinity 
by the king's troops in 1542 and 1548 against Gonzalo Pizarro. It lies 
in a rich and spacious valley, which was inhabited by the subjects of the 
Inca, on the conquest. 

Abasca, or Rabasca, a popular corruption, in the northwest, of Atha- 
basca, which see. 

Abanes, an unreclaimed nation of Indians, living in the plains of St. 
Juan, to the north of the Orinoco, in New Grenada. They are of a docile 
character, and good disposition, lending a ready ear to instruction, but 
have not embraced the Catholic religion. They inhabit the wooded 
shores of the river, and shelter themselves from the effects of a tropical sun, 
in the open plains, by erecting their habitations in the small copse-wood. 
They are bounded towards the west, by the Andaquies and Caberras, and 
east by the Salivas. , 

Abangoui, a large settlement of the Guarani nation of Indians, on the 
shores of the river Taquani, in Paraguay. This stream and its inhabi- 
tants were discovered by A. Numez, in 1541. 

Abecoochi, see Abacooche. 

Abeicas, an ancient name for a tribe of Indians, in the present erea of 
the United States, who are placed in the earlier geographies, south of the 
• Alabnmas and toest of the Cherokees. They dvvek at a distance from the 
large rivers, yet were located in the districts of the cane, out of the hard 



ETHNOLOGY. ]^ 

substance of which they made a kind of knife, capable of answering 
principal purposes of this instrument. They were at enmity with the 
quois. 

Abenakies, a nation formerly inhabiting a large part of the territoria. \ 
area of the states of New Hampshire and Maine. There were several 
tribes, of this nation the principal of which were the-Pcnobscots, the Nor- 
redgewocks, and the Ameriscoggins. They were at perpetual hostilities 
with the New England colonists. They had received missionaries, at an 
early day, from the French in Canada, and acted in close concert with 
the hostile Indians from that quarter. At length in 1724, the government 
of Massachussetts organized an effective expedition against them, which 
ascended the Kennebec, attacked the chief town of the Norredgewocks, and 
killed a large number of their bravest warriors. Among the slain, was 
found their missionary Sebastian Rasle, who had taken up arms in their 
defence. There was found, among his papers, a copious vocabulary of 
the language, which has recently been published under the supervision of 
Mr. Pickering. In the year 1754, all the Abenakies, except the Penob- 
scots, removed into Canada. This nation had directed their attention, al- 
most exclusively, to hunting. At the mouth of the Kennebec they absolute- 
ly planted nothing. Their language, as observed by Mr. Gallatin, has 
strong affinities with those of the Etchemins, and of the Micmacs, of New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia ; there are fewer resemblances in its vocabu- 
lary to the dialects south of them. This nation appears to have been 
called Tarrenteens, by the New England Indians. Their generic name 
for themselves, if they had one, is unknown. The term Abenakie, is one 
manifestly imposed by Algonquin tribes living west and south of them. 
It is derived from wabanung, the east, or a place of light, and akee, land. 

Abekas, a name applied, so late as 1750, to a band of the Muscogees, 
living on the river Tombigbee, within the present area of Alabama. 

Abernaquis, a settlement of the expatriated Abenakies of New Eng- 
land, in Lower Canada. They subsist themselves at this time in a great 
measure by agricukure, and manifest a disposition to improve. From a 
report made in 1839 by the American Board of Foreign missions of Bos- 
ton who employ a missionary and teacher among them, sixty persons 
attend Protestant worship, of which number, 24 are church members. 
Twenty of the youth attend a daily school. 

Abigiras, an Indian mission formerly under the charge of the order 
of Jesuits, in the governmental department of Quito. It is situated on, the 
river Curasari, 30 leagues from its mouth, and 240 from Quito. It was 
founded in 1665 by father Lorenzo Lucero. 

Abingas, or Wabingas, a name for a band, or sub-tribe of the River 
Indians, of the Mohegan, or Mohekinder stock, who formerly inhabited 
the present area of Dutchess county, N. Y., and some adjacent parts of the 
eastern shores of the Hudson, above the Highlands. 



STHNOLOOY. 



j^BiPONESf an unreclaimed nation of Indians, who inhabit the south 
f0Tes of the river Bermejo, in the province of Tucuman, Buenos Ayres. 
/ /lis nation is said, perhaps vaguely, to have formerly numbered 109,000 
i iuhj but was, at the last accounts, about A.D. 1800, much reduced, 
They present some peculiar traits, living as nearly in a state of nature aa 
possible. The men go entirely naked, subsisting themselves by hunting 
and fishing, and passing much of their time in idleness or war. The wo- 
men wear little ornamented skins called qiiei/api. Physically, the people 
are well formed, of a lofty stature and bearing, robust and good featured. 
They paint their bodies profusely, and take great pains to inspire hardi- 
hood. For this purpose they cut and scarify themselves from childhood ; 
they esteem tiger's flesh one of the greatest dainties, believing its proper- 
ties to infuse strength and valor. In war they are most cruel, sticking 
their captives on the top of high poles, where, exposed to the scorching 
rays of the sun, they are left to die the most horrid death. 

They have no knowledge of God, of laws, or of policy, yet they believe 
in the immortality of the soul, and in a land of future bliss, where dancing 
and diversions shall prevail. Widows observe celibacy for a year, duringr 
which time they abstain from fish. The females occupy themselves in 
sewing hides, or spinning rude fabrics. When the men are intoxicated — 
a prevalent vice — they conceal their husbands' knives to prevent assassi- 
nations. They rear but two or three children, killing all above this 
number. 

Abisca, an extensive mountainous territory of Peru, lying between the 
Yetau and Amoramago rivers, east of the Andes, noted from the earliest 
times, for the number of barbarous nations who occupy it. It is a wild 
and picturesque region, abounding in forests, lakes and streams, and af- 
fording facilities for the chase, and means of retreat from civilization, so 
congenial to savage tribes. An attempt to subjugate these fierce tribes 
made by Pedro de Andia in 1538, failed. The same result had attended 
the efforts of the emperor Yupanqui. 

Abitanis, a mountain in the province of Lipas. in Peru. In the Quet- 
chuan tongue, it signifies the ore of gold, from a mine of this metal, which 
is now nearly abandoned. 

Abittibi, the name of one of the tributaries of Moose River, of James' 
Bay, Canada. Also a small lake in Canada West, near the settlement of 
Frederick, in north latitude 48°, 35' and west longitude 82° : also, a lake 
north of lake Ncpissing, in the direction to Moose Fort. It is a term, ap- 
parently derived from nibee, water, and wab, light. 

Abitigas, a fierce and warlike nation of Indians, in the province of 
Tarma in Peru, of the original duetche stock. They are situated 60 
leagues to the east of the Andes. They are barbarians, roving from place 
to place, without habits of industry, and delighting in war. They are 
numerous, as well as warlike ; but like all the non-agricukural tribes of 



\ 



ETHNOLOGY. 237 

the region, ^liey are often in want and wretchedness. They are bounded 
on the south by their enemies the Ipilcos. 

Abo, Abougr MicHABO,or the Great Hare, a personage rather of mytholo* 
_gical, than historical note, in the traditions of the Lake Algonquin tribes. 
It is not clear, although probable, that he is to be regarded as identical 
with Manabosho, or Nanabosho. 

Abojeeg, a celebrated war and hereditary chief of the Chippewa nation, 
who flourished during the last century ; more commonly written Wabo- 
jeeg, which see. 

Abraham, axhief of the Mohawks, who, after the fall of king Hendrickf 
€0 called, at the battle of lake George, in 1755, between the English and 
French armies, became the ruling chief of that nation. He was the 
younger brother of Hendrick, and lived at the lower Mohawk Castle. 
He was of small stature, but shrewd and active, and a fluent speaker. 
Numbers of his speeches are preserved, which he delivered, as the ruling 
<:hief of his tribe, in various councils, during the stormy era of 1775, 
which eventuated in the American revolution. In the events of that era, 
his name soon disappears : as he was then a man of advanced years, he 
probably died at his village. It is not known that he excelled in war, and, 
at all events, he was succeeded, about this time, in fame and authority, by 
a new man in the chieftainship, who rose in the person of Thyendanegea, 
better known as Joseph Brant. Abraham, or little Abraham, as he wai 
generally called, appears from his speeches and policy, to have thorough- 
ly adopted the sentiments and policy of Sir William Johnson, of wh»m, 
with his tribe generally, he was the friend and admirer. He was, as his 
«peeches disclose, pacific in his views, cautious in policy, and not in- 
clined, it would seem, to rush headlong into the great contest, which was 
then brewing, and into which, his popular successor. Brant, went heart 
and hand. With less fame than his elder brother Hendrick, and with no 
warlike reputation, yet without imputation upon his name, in any way, he 
deserves to be remembered as a civilian and chieftain, who bore a respect- 
able rank ; as one of a proud, high spirited, and important tribe. Little 
Abraham was present at the last and final council of the Mohawks, with 
the American Commissioners, at Albany, in September 1775, and spoke for 
them on this occasion — which is believed to have been the last peaceable 
meeting between the Americans and the Mohawk tribe, prior to the war. 



I 

[Note. — Accents are placed over all words of North American origin, when known 
Vowels preceding a consonant, or placed between two consonants, are generally short: 
following a consonant, or ending a syllable or word, they are generally long. Diphthongs 
are used with their ordinary power.] 

Absecon. a beach of the sea coast of New Jersey, sixteen miles south- 
west of Little Egg Harbor. The word is a derivative from Wabisee, a 
Swan, and Ong. a Place. 

Absoroka, a name for the Minnetaree tribe of Indians on the river Mis- 
souri. They are philologically of the Dacotah family. See Minnetaree. 

Abucees, a mission of the Sucumbias Indians, in the province of Gluixos, 
Cluito, which was founded by the order of Jesuits. It is situated on the 
shores of a small river, which enters the Putumago, in north latitude 0*^ 
36' longitude 79° 2' west. 

Aburra, a towilj in a rich valley of the same name, in New Grenada, 
discovered in 1540, by Robledo. In its vicinity are found many huacas, 
or sepulchres of the Indians, in which great riches, such as gold ornaments, 
are found deposited. There are, in the vicinity, some streams of saline 
water, from which the Indians manufacture salt. 

- Abwoin, or BwoiN, a name of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and other mod- 
ern Algonquin tribes of the upper Lakes, for the Dacotah or Sioux na- 
tion. It is rendered plural in ug. The word is derived from abwai, a 
stick used to roast meat, and is said to have been given to this tribe, in re- 
proach from the ancient barbarities practised towards their prisoners taken 
captive in war. For an account of this tribe, see Dacotah and Sioux. 

Abwoinac ; Abwoina : Terms applied to the general area between the 
Mississippi and Missouri, lying north of the St. Peter's, occupied by Sioux 
tribes. In the earlier attempts of Lord Selkirk, to plant a colony in parts 
of this region, the compound term Assinaboina, was, to some extent, but 
unsuccessfully employed. The two former terms are derivatives from 
Abwoin, a Sioux, and akee, earth ; the latter has the prefix assin, (ossin,) 
a stone. 

AcAQUATO, a settlement of Indians in the district of Tancitars, in Peru, 
reduced in 1788, to fifteen families, who cultivated maize and vegetables. 
AcAMBARo, a settlement of 490 families of Indians, and 80 of MusteeSj 

238 



ETHNOLOGY. 239 

belonging to the order of St Francis, in the district of Zelaya, iii the 
province and bishopric of Mechoacan, seven leagues S. of its capital;, 

AcAMiSTLAHUAC, a Settlement of 30 Indian families in the district of Tas 
CO, attached to the curacy of its capital, from whence it is two league^ E. 
N. E. 

AciiAMUCHiTLAN, a Settlement of 60 families of Indians in the district of 
Texopilco, and civil division of Zultepec. They sell sugar and honey— 
the district also produces maize and vegetables. It is 5 leagues N. of its 
head settlement. 

AcANTEPKc. The head settlement of Tlipi, embracing 92 Indian fami 
lies, including another small settlement in its vicinity, all of whom main- 
tain themselves by manufacturing cotton stuffs. 

AcAPETLAHUALA, a Settlement of 180 Indian families, being the principal 
settlement of the district of Escateopan, and civil district of Zaqqaepa. 

AcARi, a settlement in a beautiful and extensive valley of Camana, in 
Peru, noted for a lofty mountain called Sahuacario, on the skirts of which 
the native Indians had constructed two fortresses, prior to their subjuga- 
tion by the Spanish. This mountain is composed of "misshapen stones, 
and sand," and is reported, at certain times of the year to emit loud 
sounds, as if proceeding from pent up air, and it is thought to have, in 
consequence, attracted the superstitious regard of the ancient Indian inhab- 
itants. 

AcATEPEC. There are five Indian settlements of this name, in Spanish 
America. 

1. A settlement comprising 860 Indian families, of the order of St. 
Francis, in the district of Thehuacan. Forty of these families live on 
cultivated estates stretching a league in a spacious valley, four leagues S. 
S. W. of the capital 

2. A settlement in the district of Chinantla, in the civil jurisdiction of 
Cogamaloapan. It is situated in a pleasant plain, surrounded by three 
lofty mountains. The number of its inhabitants is reduced. The In- 
dians who live on the banks of a broad and rapid river, which intercepts 
the great road to the city of Oxaca, and other jurisdictions, support 
themselves by ferrying over passengers in their barks and canoes. It 
is 10 leagues W. of its head settlement. 

3. A settlement of 100 Indian families, in the same kingdom, situated be- 
tween two high ridges. They are annexed to the curacy of San Lorenzo, 
two leagues off! 

4. A settlement of 39 Indian families annexed to, and distant one league 
and a half N. of the curacy of Tlacobula. It is in a hot valley, skirted by 
a river, which is made to irrigate the gardens and grc:unds on its borders. 

5 A settlement of 12 Indian families in the mayoratc of Xicayun of the 
same kingdom. 

AcATEPEQUE, St. Francisco, De, a settlement of 140 Indian families in 



240 



ETHNOLOGY. 



the mayoraie of St. Amlres de Cfaolula, situated half a league S. of it* 
capital. 

^CATLANj six locations of Indians exist, under this name, in Mexico. 

1. A settlement of 850 families of Indians in the alcaldia of this name, 
embracing some 20 Spaniards and Mustees. In the vicinity are some ex- 
cellent salt grounds. The climate is of a mild temperature, and the 
%irrounding country is fertile, abounding in fruits, flowers, and pulse, and 
h well watered. It is 55 leagues E. S. E. of Mexico. 

2. A settlement of 180 Indian families in Xalapa of the same kingdom,, 
(now republic) It occupies a spot of clayey ground of a cold moist tem- 
perature, in consequence of which, and its being subject to N. winds, 
fruits, in this neighbourhbod, do not ripen. Other branches of cultiva- 
tion succeed from the abundance of streams of water, and their fertili- 
zing effects on the soil. This settlement has the dedicatory title of St. 
Andres. 

3. San Pedro, in the district of Malacatepec, and alcaldia of Nexapa. 
It contains 80 Indian families, who trade in wool, and the fish called boboy 
%hich are caught, in large quantities, in a considerable river of the 
trict. . 

4. ZiTLALA. It consists of 198 Indian families, and is a league and a 
half N. of its head settlement of this name. 

5. Sentepec, a settlement 15 leagues N. E. of its capital. The tempe-^ 
lature is cold. It has 42 Indian families. 

6. Atotonilco, in the alcaldia mayor of Tulanzingo. It contains 115* 
Indian families, and has a convent of the religious order of St. Angus- 
Jine. It is 2 leagues N. of its head settlement. 

AcATLANZiNGo, a Settlement of 67 Indian families of Xicula of the al- 
cadia mayor of Nexapa, who employ themselves in the culture of cochi- 
*iiieai plants. It lies in a plain, surrounded on all sides by mountains. 

AcAXEE, a nation of Indians in the province of Topia. They are re- 
presented to have been converted to the catholic faith by the society of 
Jesuits in 1602. They are docile and of good dispositions and abilities. 
One of their ancient customs consisted of bending the heads of their dead 
to their knees, and in this posture, putting them in caves, or under a rock 
and at the same time, depositing a quantity of food for their supposed 
journey in another state. They also exhibited a farther coincidence with 
ithe customs of the northern Indians, by placing a bow and arrows with 
the body of the dead warrior, for his defence. Should an Indian woman 
happen to die in child-bed, they put the surviving infant to death, as hav- 
ing been the cause of its mother's decease. This tribe rebelled against the 
Spanish in 1612, under the influence of a native prophet, but they were 
imbdued by the governor of the province, Don Francisco de Ordinola, 

AcAXETE, Santa Maria de, the head settlement of the district of Tepcaca, 
on the slope of the sierra of Tlascala. It consists of 176 Mexican Indiana^ 



ETHNOLOGY. ^ 241 

:T -Spanish families, and 10 Mustees and Mulatoes. In its viciniy there 
is a reservoir of hewn stone, to catch the waters of the mountain, vhich 
are thence conducted to Tepcaca, three leagues N. N. W. 

AcAXUCHiTLAN, a curacy consisting of 406 Indian families of the 
bishopric of La Peubla de los Angelos. It is in the alcaldia of Tulanzing), 
lying 4 leagues E. of its capital. 

AcAYUCA, the capital of a civil division of New Spain, in the province 
of Goazacoalco, embracing, in its population, 296 families of Indians, 30 
of Spaniards, and 70 of mixed bloods. It lies a little over 100 leagues S, 
E. of Mexico, in lat. 17° 53' N. 

AcAZiNGo, St Juan de, a settlement of the district of Tepcaca, consist- 
ing of 700 families of Indians, 150 of Spaniards, 104 of Mustees, and 
31 of Mulatoes. It is situated in a plain of mild temperature, well 
watered, and has a convent and fountain, and a number of " very ancient 
buildings." 

AccdcESAWs, a tribe of Indians of erratic habits, of Texas, whose prin- 
cipal location was formerly on the west side of the Colorado, about 200 miles 
S. W. of Nacogdoches. At a remoter period they lived near the gulf of 
Mexico : they made great use of fish, and oysters. Authors represent the 
country occupied, or traversed by them, as exceedingly fertile and beautiful, 
and abounding in deer of the finest and largest kind. Their language is 
said to be peculiar to themselves ; they are expert in communicating ideas by 
the system of signs. About A. D. 1750 the Spanish had a mission among 
them, but removed it to Nacogdoches. 

AccoMAC, a county of Virginia, lying on the eastern shores of Chesa- 
peak bay. This part of the sea coast was inhabited by the Nanticokes, 
who have left their names in its geography. We have but a partial vo- 
cabulary of this tribe, which is now extinct. It has strong analogies, 
however, to other Algonquin dialects. Aco, in these dialects, is a generic 
term, to denote a goal, limit, or fixed boundary. Ahkee, in the Nanticoke, 
is the term for earth, or land. Auk, is a term, in compound words of 
these dialects, denoting wood. The meaning of accomac, appears to be 
as far as the woods reach^ or, the boundary between meadow and wood- 
lands. 

AccoMACS, one of the sub tribes inhabiting the boundaries of Virginia 
on its discovery and first settlement. Mr. Jefferson states their numbers 
in 1607 at 80. In 1669, when the legislature of Virginia directed a cen- 
sus of the Indian population, within her jurisdiction, there appears no no- 
tice of this tribe. They inhabited the area of Northampton county. They 
were Nanticokes — a people whose remains united themselves or at 
least took shelter with the Lenapees, or Delawares. 

AccoHANocs, a division or tribe of the Powhetanic Indiaiis, numbering 
40, in 1607. They lived on the Accohanoc river, in eastern Virginia. 



16 



/ 

/ 



242 ETHNOLOGY. 

AccoMExNTAS, a band, or division of the Pawtucket Indians inhabiting' 

o 

the northerly part of Massachusetts in 1674. (Gookin.) 

AcHAGUA, a nation of Indians of New Grenada, dwelling in the plains 
of Gazanare and Meta, and in the woods of the river Ele. They are bold 
And dexterous hunters with the dart and spear, and in their contests with 
their enemies, they poison their weapons. They are fond of horses, and 
rub their bodies with oil, to make their hair shine. They go naked 
except a small azeaun made of the fibres of the aloe. They anoint their 
children w^ith a bituminous ointment at their birth, to prevent the growth 
of hair. The brows of females are also deprived of hair, and immediately 
rubbed with the juice of jagua^ which renders them bald ever after. They 
are of a gentle disposition but addicted to intoxication. The Jesuits for- 
merly reduced many of them to the Catholic faith, and formed them into 
settlements in 1661. 

AcHAFALAYA, the principal western outlet of the Mississippi river. It is 
a Choctaw word, meaning, " the long river," from Imcho.^ river, a.nd falai/aj 
long. (Gallatin.) 

AcKowAYS, a synonym for a band of Indians of New France, now 
Canada. See Acouez. 

AcKEEKSEEBE, a remote northern tributary of the stream called Rum 
river, which enters the Mississippi, some few miles above the falls of St. 
Anthony, on its left banks. It is a compound phrase, from Akeek, a 
kettle, and seebe, a stream. It was on the margin of this stream, in a 
wide and spacious area, interspersed with beaver ponds, that a detachinent 
of Gen. Cass's exploring party in July 1820, encamped; and the next 
morning discovered an Indian pictorial letter, written on bark, detailing 
the incidents of the march. 

AcKEEKo, or the Kettle chief, a leading Sauc chief who exercised his 
authority in 1820, at an important Indian village, situated on the right 
banks of the Mississippi, at Dubuque's mines. 

AcHQUANCHicoLA, the name of a creek in Pennsylvania : it signifies in 
the Delaware or Lenapee language, as given by Heckewelder, the brush- 
net fishing creek. 

AcHwicK, a small stream in central Pennsylvania. It denotes in the 
Delaware language, according to Heckewelder, brushy, or difficult to 
pass. 

AcoBAMBA, a settlement in the province of Angaraes in Peru, near 
which are some monumental remains of the ancient race, who inhabited 
the country prior to^its conquest by the Spanish. They consist, chiefly, 
of a pyramid of stones, and the ruins of some well sculptured stone couches, 
or benches, now much injured by time. 

AooLMAN, San Augustin de, a settlement of 240 families of Indians of 
Tezcoco in Mexico. It is situated in a pleasant valley, with a benign tem- 
perature, and has a qonvent of Augustine monks. 



\ 

ETHNOLOGY. \ 243 

; AcoMES, a fall in the river Amariscoggin, Maine, denoting, in the L^dian, 
RS is supposed, a rest, or place of stopping. From aco, a bound or point. 

AroMULco, a village of 12 Indian families in Zochicoatlan, New Spfiin, 
two leagues W. of its capital. 

AcoNicHi, the name of a settlement of Indians formerly living on the.- 
river Eno, in North Carolina. 

AooTiTLAN, a settlement of 15 Indian families, in the alcaldia of Autlan, 
Mexico. They employ themselves in laising cattle, making sugar and 
honey, and extracting oil from the cacao fruit. 

AcouEz, a name formerly applied by the French to a band of Indians 
in New France. Believed to be identical with Ackoways. 

AcQUACKiNAC, or AcQUACKiNUNK, the Indian name of a town on the W. 
side of the Passaic river, New Jersey, ten miles N. of Newark and 17 
from New York. From aco, a limit, misquak, a red cedar, and auk, a 
stump or trunk of a tree. 

AcQuiNosHioNEE, or United People, the vernacular name of the Iroquois 
for their confederacy. It appears, from their traditions, communicated to the 
Rev. Mr. Pyrlaus, a Dutch missionary of early date, that this term had 
not been in use above 50 years prior to the first settlement of the country: 
and if so, we have a late date, not more remote than 1 559 for the origin 
of this celebrated union. But this maybe doubted. Cartier discovered 
the St. Lawrence in 1534, and found them at the site of Montreal ; Verri- 
zani, is said to have entered the bay of New York ten years before. Hud- 
son entered the river in 1609. Jamestown was founded the year before. 
The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 14 years later. It is more probable 
that the 50 years should be taken from the period of the earlier attempts 
of the French settlements, which would place the origin of the confederacy 
about A. D. 1500. (See Iroquois.) 

AcTOPAN, or OcTUPAN, a town and settlement of the Othomies Indians, 
situated 23 leagues N. N. E. of Mexico. Its population is put by Alcedo 
in 1787, at 2750 families. These are divided into two parties, separated 
by the church. It also contains 50 families of Spaniards, Mustees, and 
Mulatoes. The temperature is mild, but the ground is infested with the 
cactus, thorns and teasel, which leads the inhabitants to devote^their atten- 
tion to the raising of sheep and goats. In this vicinity are found numbers 
of the singular bird, called zejLzontla by the Mexican Indians. 

AcTUPAN, a settlement of 210 families of Indians in the district of Xoci- 
milco, Mexico. 

AcuiAPAN, a settlement of 58 Indian families, in the alcaldia mayor of 
Zuhepec, annexed to the curacy of Temascaltepec. They live by dress- 
ing hides for the market — ib. 

AcuiLPA, a settlement of 92 Indian families, in the magistracy of Tlapa, 
Mexico. It is of a hot and moist temperature, yielding grain, and the 
while medicinal earth called chia^ in which they carry on a trade. 



244 EtHNOLOOY. 

Acpio, a considerable settlement of Spaniards, Mustees, Mulatoei, lind 
Negroes, 30 leagues W. of Cinaqua, in the curacy of Tauricato, Mexico ; 
einl^racing 9 Indian families. 

/4cuLA, San Pedro de, an Indian settlement of 305 families, four 
l^giies E. of Cbzamaloapan, its capital. It is situated on a high hill, 
bounded by a large lake of the most salubrious water, called Peutla by the 
natives. This lake has its outlet into the sea through the sand banki of 
Alvarado, and the lake is subject to overflow its banks in the winter season. 

AcuTiTLAN, an Indian settlement of 45 families, in the district of 
Tefiuxilco, Mexico, who trade in sugar, honey, and maize. It is five 
leagues N. E. of Zultepec, and a quarter of a league from Acamuchitlan. 

AcuTzio, an Indian settlement of Tiripitio, in the magistracy of Valla- 
dolid, and bishopric of Mechoacan, Mexico. It contains 136 Indian 
families, and 1 1 families of Spaniards and Mustees. Six cultivated estates 
in this district, producing wheat, maize, and other grains, employ most of 
this population, who also devote part of their labour to the care of large 
and small cattle. 

ACaes, or Adaize, a tribe of Indians, who formerly lived forty milei 
South west from Na;tchitoches, in the area of country, which now consti* 
ttites a part of the republic of Texas, They were located on a lake, 
which communicates with the branch of Red-river passing Bayou Pierre. 
This tribe appears to have lived at that spot, from an early period. Their 
language is stated to be difficult of acquisition, and different from all 
others, in their vicinity. They were at variance with the ancient Natchez^ 
and joined the French in their assault upon them in 179S. They werei 
intimate with the Caddoes, and spoke their language. At the last dates, 
(1812) they were reduced to twenty men, with a disproportionate number 
of women. The synonyms for this now extinct tribe are, Adayes ; Adeea; 
Adaes; Adaize. 

Adario, a celebrated chief of the Wyandot nation, who was at the 
height of his usefulness and reputation, about 1690. He was able in the 
councils of his tribe, shrewd and wily in his plans, and firm and courage- 
ous in their execution. The Wyandots, or Hurons as they are called by 
the French, were then living at Michilimackinac, to which quarter they 
had been driven by well known events in their history. The feud be- 
tween them and their kindred, the Iroquois, stili raged. They remained 
t!ie firm allies of the French ; but ihey were living in a state of expatri- 
ation from their own country, and dependant on the friendship and cour- 
tesy of the Algonquins of the upper lakes, among whom they had found 
a refuge. Adario, at this period, found an opportunity of making him- 
self felt, and striking a blow for the eventual return of his nation. 

To understand his position, a few allusions to the history of the period . 
are necessary. ^ 

In 1687, the English of the province of New- York, resolved to avail 



ETHNOLOGY. 



m 



diemselves of a recent alliance between the two crowniSy to attempt a par- 
ticipation in the fur trade of the upper lakes. They persuaded the Iti^ 
quois to set free a number of Wyandot captives to guide them through the 
lakes, and open an intercourse with their people. Owing to the high 
price and scarcity of goods, this plan was favored by Adario and his peiJ- 
pie, and also by the Ottowas and Pottowattomis, but the enterprise failed. 
Major McGregory, who led the party, was intercepted by a large body 
of French from Mackinac, the whole party captured and their goods were 
distributed gratuitously to the Indians. The lake Indians, who had, co- 
yertly countenanced this attempt, were thrown back entirely on the French 
trade, and subjected to suspicions which made them uneasy in their coun- 
cils, and anxious to do away with the suspicions entertained of their fidel- 
ity by the French. To this end Adario marched a party of 100 men 
from Mackinac against the Iroquois. Stopping at fort Cadarackui to get 
some intelligence which might guide him, the commandant informed him 
that the governor of Canada, Denonville, was in hopes of concluding a 
peace with the Five Nations, and expected their ambassadors at Montreal in 
a few days. He therefore advised the chief to return. Did such a peace 
take place, Adario perceived that it would leave the Iroquois to push the 
war against his nation, which had already been driven from the banks of 
the St. Lawrence to lake Huron. He dissembled his fears, however, be- 
fore the commandant, and left the fort, not for the purpose of returning 
home, but to waylay the Iroquois delegates, at a portage on the river where 
he knew they must pass. He did not wait over four or five days, when 
the deputies arrived, guarded by 40 young warriors, who were all sur- 
prised, and either killed or taken prisoners. His next object was to shifl 
the blame of the act on the governor of Canada, by whom he told his pri- 
soners, he had been informed of their intentron to pass this way, and he 
was thus prepared to lie in wait for them. They were much surprised at 
this apparent act of perfidy, informing him at the same time, that they 
were truly and indeed on a message of peace. Adario affected to grow 
mad with rage against Denonville, declaring that he would some time be 
revenged on him for making him a tool, in committing so horrid a trea- 
chery. Then looking steadfastly on the prisoners, among whom was 
Dekanefora, the head chief of the Onondaga tribe, " Go," said he, " my 
brothers, I untie your bonds, and send you home again, although our 
nations be at war. The French governor has made me commit so blaci 
an action, that I shall never be easy after it, until the Five Nations have 
taken full revenge." The ambassadors were so well persuaded of the 
perfect truth of his declarations, that they replied in the most friendly 
terms, and said the vi'ay was opened to their concluding a peace between 
their respective tribes, at any time. He then dismissed his prisoners, with 
presents of arms, powder and ball, keeping but a single man (an adopted 
Sl.awnee) to supply the place of the only man he had lost in the engage- 



246 



ETHNOLOGY. 



ment. By one bold effort he thus blew up the fire of discord between the 
French a.id their enemies, at the moment it was about to expire, and laid 
the foundation of a peace with his own nation. Adario delivered his 
slave to the French on reaching Mackinac, who, to keep up the old en- 
mity between the Wyandots and the Five Nations, ordered him to be shot. 
On this Adario called up an Iroquois prisoner who was a witness of this 
scene, and who had long been detained among them, and told him to es- 
cape to his own country, and give an account of the cruelly of the 
French, from whom it was not in his power to save a prisoner he had 
himself taken. 

This increased the rage of the Five Nations to such a pitch, that when 
Mons. Denonville sent a message to disown the act of Adario, they put no 
faith in it, but burned for revenge. Nor was it long before the French 
felt the effects of their rage. On the 26th of July, 1688, they landed with 
1200 men on the upper end of the island of Montreal, and carried des- 
truction wherever they went. Houses were burnt, plantations sacked, and 
men, women and children massacred. Above a thousand of the French 
inhabitants were killed, and twenty -six carried away prisoners, most of 
whom were burnt alive. In October of the same year, they renewed their 
incursion, sweeping over the lower part of the island as they had previ- 
ously done the upper. Th,e consequences of these inroads were most dis- 
astrous to the French, who were reduced to the lowest point of political 
despondency. They burnt their two vessels on Cadarackui lake, aban- 
doned the fort, and returned . to Montreal. The news spread far and wide 
among the Indians of the upper lakes, who, seeing the fortunes- of the 
French on the wane, made treaties with the English, and thus opened the 
way for their merchandise into the lakes. — [Golden.] 

Such were the consequences of a single enterprise, shrewdly planned 
and vigorously executed. The fame of its author spread abroad, and he 
was every where regarded as a man of address, courage and abilities. 
And it is from this itiniie, that the ancient feud between the Wyandots and 
their kindred, the Five Nations, began to cool. They settled on the straits 
of Detroit, where they so long, and up to the close of the late v^rar (1814,) 
exercised a commanding influence among the lake tribes, as keepers of the 
general council fire of the nations. 

La Hontan, in his Travels in New France, relates some conversations 
with this chief, on the topic of religion, which may be regarded, almost 
exclusively, as fabulous. 

Adayes, Adaes, and Adees, forms of orthography, occurring in various 
writers, for the Adaize Indians, which see. 

Adequatangte, a tributary of the eastern head waters of the river Sus- 
quehanna in New- York. The word is Iroquois. 

Addees, the number of this tribe, residing on the waters of Red River, 



\ 



ETHNOLOGY. mm7 

in Louisiana, in 1825, is stated, in an official report, from the war depart- 
ment of that year, at twenty-seven. 

Adoles, a settlement of Indians in the province of Orinoco, They 
were of the Saliva nation. ' The settlement was destroyed by the Caribs 
in 1684. 

Adirondacks, the name of the Iroquois tribes for the Algonquins. The 
consideration of their history and characteristics, as a family of tribes, will 
be taken up, under the latter term. 

Adirondack Mountains, a name bestowed, in the geological survey of 
New York, upon the mountains at the source of the Hudson River. 

Adik, Ia-ba. See laba Wadik. 

Adikiminis, or Cariboo Island ; an island situated in the north eastern 
part of lake Superior, which is invested with no other importance than it 
derives from Indian mythology and superstition. It is small and has sel- 
dom been visited. The Chippewas believe that this is one of the places 
of residence of their local manitoes, and that it was formerly inhabited by 
Michabo or Manabosho. Early travellers, who notice this belief, repre- 
sent its shores to be covered with golden sands, but that these sands are 
guarded by powerful spirits, who will not permit the treasure to be carried 
away. Many fanciful tales are told of its having been once attempted, 
when a huge spirit strode into the water, and reclaimed the shining trea- 
sure. This is Carver's version, who, however, confounds it with another 
.contiguous island. Henry, who visited it in his search after silver mines, 
in 1765, says that the Indians told, him that their ancestors had once 
landed, there, being driven by stress of weather, but had great difficulty 
in escaping from the power of enormous snakes. He calls it the Island 
of Yellow Sands. It abounded certainly with hawks in his day, one of 
whom was so bold as to pluck his cap from his head. He found nothing 
to reward his search but a number of Cariboos, which is the American 
reindeer, of which no less than 13 were killed, during his stay of three 
days. He represented it to be 12 miles in circumference, low, and covered 
with ponds, and to be sixty miles distant from the north shore of the lake. 
He thinks it is perhaps the same island which the French called Isle de 
Pontchartrain. 

Affagoula, a small village of Indians, of Louisiana, who were located 
in 1783 near Point Coupe, on the Mississippi. 

Agaces, a nation of Indians of the province of Paraguay. They are 
numerous, valiant, and of a lofty stature. They were, in ancient times, 
masters of the banks of the Paraguay, waging war against the Guavanies, 
and keeping the Spaniards at bay, but were at last subjugated in 1542, by 
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, governor of the province. 

Agariata, an Iroquois chief, who, having gone on an embassy of peace 
about 1688, to Canada, the governor, Monsieur Coursel, being exaspe- 



248 



ETHNOLOGY. 



lated against Jiim, on account of bad faith and a violation of a treaty, caused 
him xo be hanged in the presence of his countrymen. 

Agamentigus, a mountain of considerable elevation, eight mil^s from 
fjlTork harbour, Maine; also, a river of the same vicinity, which derives 
its waters chiefly from the influx of Piscataqua bay. The termination 
.,p{ the name in is foreign, and not in accordance with the Abenakie 
iii4ialecjts pf this coast. 

Agamuntic, the name of a small lake, or pond, of Maine, which dis* 
;<harges its waters through the west branch of the Chaudiere river. 

Agawams, a band of Indians of the Pokenoket, or Wampanoag type, 
who formerly lived at various periods, in part . in Sandwich, in part in 
r jpswich, and in part in Springfield, Massachusets. The word is written 
with sonie variety, in old authors, the chief of which, are, the addition of 
.^mother g, and the change of the penultimate a to o. 

Agiocochook, a name of the Indians, for the White Mountains of New- 
Hanipshire ; of which the penultimate ok, is the plural. This group is 
,,also called, according to President Allen, Waumbek — a word, which in 
ijfpme of the existing dialects of the Algonquin, is pronounced Waubik, 
4hat is. White Rock. 

Agnalos, a tribe of infidel Indians, inhabiting the mountains north of 
the river Apure, in New Grenada. 

Agrias, a tribe of Indians, formerly very numerous, of the govern- 
.^ent of Santa Marta, to the north of the Cienegra Grande. They are, at 
present, considerably reduced. 

Agua de Culebra, San Francisco Xavier De La, a reduccion of Indians 
|)f the Capuchins, of the province of Venezuela. The vicinity produces, 
in abundance, cacao, yucao, and other vegetable productions. 

Aguacagua, an Indian mission, on a branch of the Oronoco, called 
jCaroni. 

Aguacatlan, an Indian mission of Xala, in Mexico. In 1745, it 
contained 80 families of Indians, who cuhivated maize and French beans. 

Agualulco, the capital of the jurisdiction of Izatlan, New Gaiicia, which 
m 1745, contained 100 Indian families, 

Aguanos, a settlement in the province of Mainas, Quito, so called from 
,j|be Indians of whom it is composed. 

Aguarico, an Indian mission of the Jesuits, on the shores of the river 
^^apo, of the province of Mainas, Quito. 

Aguaringua, an ancient and large settlement of Indians of the Tairpnas 
natipn, in Santa Marta. 

AGViLy^cp, a settlement of the district of Arantzan, in the province of 
Mechoacan, which contains 36 Indian families. They subsist by sowing 
seed, cutting wood, making saddle trees, and manufacturing vessels of fin* 
,,farthen ware. 



ETHWdiudicrirl 2^ 

jiS£P(M^'^ \a\iM^ of Florida, having its outlet through the Oclawaha 
liver of the St. John's. 

AhasimuSj an ancient Indian name, for the present site of Jersey city,. 
Hudson county, New Jersey. 

Ahome, or Ahoma, a nation of Indians, living on the banks of the river 
Zaque, in the province of Cinaloa, of California. They are located four 
leagues from the gulf, in extensive and fertile plains, and are said to be su- 
perior, by nature, to the other Indians of New Spain. Some of their 
customs denote this. They abhor poligamy, they hold virginity in the 
highest estimation. Unmarried girls, by way of distinction, wear a small 
shell suspended to their neck, until the day of their nuptials, when it is 
taken off by the bridegroom. They wear woven cotton. They bewail 
their dead a year, at night and morning. They are gentle and faithful in 
their covenants and engagements. 

Ahouandate, a name for the tribe of the Wyandots, which is found on 
ancient maps of the Colonies. 

Ahuacatlan, the name of four separate settlements of Mexico, contain- 
ing, respectively, 51, 13, 450, and 160 families of Indians. 

Ahuacazalca, Nueva Espana. At this place, 56 families of Indians 
live by raising rice and cotton. It is in the district of San Luis de la 
Costa. 

Ahuacazingo, in the district of Atengo, Nueva Espana, contains 46 
Indian families. 

Ahualican, of the same province, has 36 Indian families. 
Ahuatelco, ib. Has 289 families, who cultivate wheat and raise cattle. 
Ahuatempa, ib. Has 39 families. 
Ahuatepec, ib. Has 32 families. 

Ahuazitla, ib. Has 36 families, who trade inchia, a white medicinal 
«arth, grain and earthen-ware. 

Ahwahawa, a tribe of Indians who were found in 1805 to be located 
a few miles above the Mandans, on the south west banks of the Missouri. 
They are believed to have been a band of the Minnitares. They numbered 
at that date 200. They were at war with the Snake Indians. They claim 
to have once been a part of the Crow nation. They professed to have been 
long residents of the spot occupied. The name has not been kept up, 
and does not appear in recent reports from that quarter. Their history 
is, probably, to be sought in that of the Mandans and the Minnetares. 

Aiahualtempa, a settlement of Chalipa, Mexico, containing 36 Indian 
families. 

Aiahualulco, ib. Two settlements of this name, contain, respectively, 
70 and 42 Indian families. 

AiAPANGo, ib. contains 100 Indian families. 
AiATEPEC, ib. has 45 families o^atives. 
AiAUTLA, ib. has 100 families. 



250 



ETHNOLOGY. 



AicHES, a settlement of Indians of Texas, situated on the main road to 
Mexico. 

AiKCTirAc, Mexico. Twenty-one Indian families reside here. 

AiNSK, a Chippewa chief of Point St. Ignace, Mechilimackinac county, 
Michigan. The population of this band, as shown by the government 
censds rolls in 1840, was 193, of whom 33 were men, 54 women, and 106 
children. They support themselves by the chase and by fishing. They 
cultivate potatoes only. They receive, together with the other bands, an- 
nuities <*iora the government, in coin, provisions, salt, and tobacco, for 
which purpose they assemble annually, on the island of Michilimackinac. 
The name of this chief is believed to be a corruption from Hans. 

AiocnEsco, an Indian settlement of Chalipa, Mexico. Has 400 Indian, 
families. 

AioCTiTLAN, ib. Has 76 ditto. 

AioziNAPA, ib. Has 34 ditto. 

A'ozixGO, ib. Has 120 ditto. 

AiHicos, a nation of Indians inhabiting the plains of Cazanare and 
Meta in the new kingdom of Grenada, to the east of the mountains of 
Bogota. They inhabit the banks of the river Ele. They are numerous 
and warlike, and feared by all their neighbours, for their valour and dex- 
terity in the use of arms. In 1662 Antonio de Monteverde, a Jesuit, es- 
tablished a mission among them, and baptized numbers. 

Ai5'!QUAGoNABKE. A Chippewa chief, of some note, of a mild and dig- 
nified carriage, living on Grand Traverse Bay, on the east shores of lake 
Michigan. In 1836 he formed a part ol the delegation of Chippewa and 
Ottowa chiefs, who proceeded to Wg^shington city, and concluded a treaty 
ceding their lands to the U. S. from Grand river on lake Michigan, to 
Chocolate river on lake Superior. The name signifies, the first feather, or 
feather of honour. The population of his village in 1840, as shown by 
the cfnsus rolls, was 207, of whom 51 were men, or heads of families, 49 
women, and 107 children. They receive annuities annually at Michili- 
mackinac. They subsist by the chase, by planting corn, beans and pota- 
toes, and by fishing. 

AiSHKKBTjGtKozH, or the Flat Mouth, called Guelle Platte, in the patois 
of the Fur Trade. The Head chief of the band of the Chippewas, called 
MukundwiiS or Pilligers, who are situated at Leech Lake, on the sources 
of the Mississippi. This band, it is estimated, can furnish 200 warriors, 
they are a brave and warlike people, and are at perpetual war with their 
western neighbours, the Sioux. The}'- subsist by the chase, and by tak- 
ing white fish in the 1 )ke. Some corn and potatoes are also raised by the 
womt'ii ;ind the old and superannuated men of the band. They are a fierce,, 
wild, iin'amed race, strong in their numbers, and proud and confident in 
their >ucckss in war, and the comparati|| ease with which they procure a 
suhsisience from the chase. They adhere to their ancient religious cere- 



ETHNOLOGY. 



251 



monies and incantations, and are under the government of their native 
priests, jossakeeds and seers. Aishkebugekozh, has for many years exer- 
cised the political sway over them, leading them, (sometimes to war, and 
presiding, at all times, in their councils. He 'S a shrewd man, of much 
observation and experience in the affaiis of the frontiers. He is of a 
large, rather stout frame, broad shoulders and chest, and broad face, with 
a somewhat stern countenaoce, denoting decision of character and capa- 
city to command. Thin and extended lips, parted in a right line over a 
prominent jaw, render the name, which his people have bestowed on him, 
characteristic. By the term Kozh, instead of Odoan, the true meaning of 
it is rather muzzle, or snout, than mouth, a distinction which the French 
have preserved in the term Guelle. 

AiuiNos, a nation of Indians, of the government of Cinaloa, New Spain. 
They live in the north part of the province. They formerly dwelt ia 
lofty mountains, to escape the effects of war with other nations. In 1624, 
the Jesuits established a mission amongst them. They are docile, well in- 
clined, and of good habits. 

AruTLA, a settlement of New Spain, containing 187 Indian families. 
Another location of the same name contains 23 flimilies. 

Ajoues, a tribe of Indians of Louisiana, in its ancient extent, while it 
Bxisted under the government of the French. The word, as expressed in 
English orthography, is lowas, and the tribe will be considered under that 
head. 

Akosa, an Odjibwa chief, living on the peninsula of Grand Traverse 
Bay, lake Michigan, known for his good will towards the mission esta- 
blished near his village, by the American Board, in 1839. In the recess 
periods of hunting, he is attentive on the means of instruction furnished 
at that station. He enjoins on his children attendance at the school. He 
bestows a punctual care in planting his corn-field and garden. He has 
erected a good dwelling house of logs, and supplied it with several articles 
of plain household furniture. He is of a mild and pleasing character, 
and appreciates and acknowledges the superiority of agricukure and civi- 
lization over the uncertainties of the chase. Without distinction in war, 
or eloquence, or a genealogy of warriors to refer to, and consequently, of 
but little general note or fame in his tribe, he is an active hunter, and 
stable, temperate man, and may be regarded as a fair average specimen, 
physically and mentally, of the race. The band of Akosa mustered 160 
souls, on the pay rolls of 1840, of which number, 37 were men, 42 women, 
and 89 children. They receive their annuities at Michilimackinac. 

Akansa, a synonym of Arkansas. 

Alabama, one of the United States of America. The name is derived 
from a tribe of Indians, who formerly inhabited the banks of the river of 
the same name This river, on its junction with the Tombigbee, forms thd 
Mobile. The Alabama Indians, were succeeded in the occupancy of this 



river by the Creeks, or Muscogees. They withdrew towards the west 
In 1790 their descendants lived in a village, eligibly situated, on several 
swelling green hills on the banks of the Mississippi. No accounts of them 
are given in recent reports They appear to have continued their route 
westward by the way of Red River. The precise period of their cross- 
ing the Mississippi is not known. They came to Red River about the 
same time as the Bolixies and Appalaches. Their language is represented 
to be the Mobilian, as denominated by Du Pratz, that is the Chacta. Part 
of them lived, at the end of the 18th century, on Red River, sixteen miles 
above Bayou Rapide. Thence they went higher up the stream, and set- 
tled near the Caddoes, where they raised good crops of corn. An* 
other party, of about 40 men, lived in Apalousas district, where they 
cultivated corn, raised and kept horses, hogs and cattle, and exhibited a 
quiet and pacific character. From a statement published in a paper, at 
Houston, the seat of government of Texas, in 1840, their descendants 
were then settled on the river Trinity, in that republic, where thpy are as- 
sociated with the Coshattas, forming two villages, numbering two hundred 
warriors, or about 1000 souls. They preserve, in this new location, the 
pacific and agricultural traits noticed during their residence in Lousiana. 

Alachua, an extensive level prairie, in Florida, about 75 miles west of 
St. Augustine. The ancient Indian town of Alachua, stood on its bor- 
ders, but its inhabitants removed to a more healthful position at Cusco- 
willa. 

Alaclatzala, a settlement in the district of St. Lewis, New Spain, con- 
, taining 125 Indian families. 

Alahuitzlan, ib. a settlement having 270 Indian families. 
Alapaha, one of the higher tributary streams of the Suwannee river, in 
Florida. 

Alaske, or Onalaska, a long peninsula on the N. W. coast of America. 
At its termination, are a number of islands, which form a part of the clus- 
ter called the northern Archepelago. 

Albarrada, a settlement of Indians in the kingdom of Chile, situated 
on the shores of the river Cauchupil. Also a settlement of New Spain, 
containing 22 Indian families. 

Alkmpigon impropeHy written for Nipigon, a small lake north of lake 
Superior. 

Alfaxaiuca, a settlement of New Spain, containing 171 Indian fami- 
lies. 

Algansee, a township of the county of Branch, Michigan. It is a 
compound derivative from Algonkin, gan, a particle denoting a lake, and 
mushcodainse, a prairie. 

Algic, an adjective term used by the writer, to denote a genus or family 
of tribes who take their characteiistic from the use of the Algonquin Ian- 



ETHNOLOGY* 



253 



^uage. It is a derivative from the words Algonquin^ ^nd Akcc^ earth, or 
land. 

Aloonquin, a nation of Indians who, on the discovery and settlement of 
Canada, were found to occupy the north banks of the St. Lawrence be- 
tween duebec, Three Rivers, and the junction of the Utawas. Quebec 
itself is believed to be a word derived from this language, having its origin 
in Kebic. the fearful rock or cliff When the French settled at Quebec, 
fifteen hundred fighting men of this nation lived between that nation and 
Sillery. They were reputed, at this era, to be the most warlike and power- 
ful people in North America, and the most advanced in their policy and 
intelligence. Golden speaks of them as excelling all others. On the ar- 
rival of Champhiin, who, ahhough not the discoverer of the country, was 
the true founder of the French power in Canada, they were supplied with 
fire arms, and even led to war, by that chivahic officer, against their ene- 
mies, the Iroquois. They were stimulated to renewed exertions in vari- 
ous ways, by the arrival of this new power, and carried the terror of their 
arms towards the soulK and south-west. They were in close alliance 
with the Wyandots, a people who, under the names of Gluatoghies and 
Hurons, on Cartier's arrival in 1534, were seen as low down the St, 
Lawrence as the island of Anticosti, and bay Chaleur. But as soon as 
the Iroquois had been supplied with the same weapons, and learned their 
use, the Algonquins were made to feel the effects of their courage, and 
combined strength. The Wyandots were first defeated in a great battle 
fought within two leagues of Quebec. The Iroquois next prepared to 
strike an effective blow against the collective tribes of kindred origin, 
called Algonquins. Under the pretence of visiting the Governor of Ca- 
nada, they introduced a thousand men into the valley of the St. Lawrence, 
when, finding their enemies separated into two bodies, the one at the river 
Nicolet, and the other at Trois Riviere, they fell upon them unawares, 
and defe;ited both divisions. In this defeat the Nipercerinians (Nipes- 
sings) and the Atawawas (Otlowas) who then lived on the banks of the 
St. Liwrence, participated. The former, who were indeed but the Al- 
gonquin« under their proper name, drew off towards the north-west 
The Atawawas migratea lO the great chain of the Manatoulines of lake 
Huron, whence they have still proceeded further towards the west and south, 
until they reached L'arbre Croche and Grand River of Michigan, their 
present seats. The Quatoghirs or Wyandots fled to the banks of the 
8a»ne Lake (Huron) vn':n nas derived its name from the celebrity of their 
flight to, and residen -e ou :t« banks. 

Of the Algonquins (Toper who remained on the St. Lawrence, and who 
are specifically entitled to that name, but a limited number survive. 
Aboni th^ middle of the 17th century, they were reduced to a few villages 
near Q iebec. who were then said to be " wasted, and wasting away undei 
the ertecis of ardent spirits.'* Subsequently, they were collected, by the 



254 



ETHNOLOGY. 



Catholic Church, into a mission, and settled at the Lake of Two Moun- 
tains, on the Utawas or Grand River of Canada, where they have beeii 
instructed in various arts, and effectually civilized. There, their descend- 
ants still remain. They are a tall, active, shrewd, lithe, energic racei 
Parties of them have been engaged as voyagers and hunters, within mo^ 
dern times, and led in the prosecution of the fur trade into the remote for- 
ests of the north-west. In these positions, they have manifested a degree of 
energy, hardihood, and skill in the chase, far beyond that possessed by 
native, unreclaimed tribes. The Algonquin women, at the Lake of Two 
Mountains, make very ingenious basket and bead work, in which the 
dyed quills of the porcupine, and various coloured beads of European 
manufacture, are employed. They also make finger rings out of moose 
hair, taken from the breast tuft of this animal, in which mottoes or devices 
are worked. They have molodious soft voices, in chanting the hymns 
sung at the mission. This tribe is called Odishkuaguma, that is, People- 
at-the-end-of-the-waters, by the Odjibwas. They were called Adiron- 
dacks, by the Six Nations. The term Algonquin, which we derive from 
the French, is not of certain etymology. It appears at first to have been a 
nom de guerre, for the particular people, or tribe, whose descendants are 
now confined to the position at the Lake of Two Mountains. It was early 
applied to all the tribes of kindred origin. And is now a generic term for 
a family or primitive stock of tribes in North America, who either speak 
cognate dialects, or assimilsrte in the leading principles of their languages. 

The number of these tribes still existing, is very large, and viewed in 
the points of their greatest diflTerence, the variations in the consonantal and 
diphthongal sounds of their languages, are considerable. As a general 
geographical area, these tribes, at various periods from about 1600, to the 
present time, ethnographically covered the Atlantic coast, from the 
northern extremity of Pamlico-sound to the Straits of Bellisle, extending 
west and north-west, to the banks of the Missinipi of Hudson's Bay, and 
to the east borders of the Mississippi, as low as the junction of the. Ohio. 
From this area, the principal exceptions are the Iroquois of New York, 
the Wyandots west, and the Winnebagoes and s,mall bands of the Doco- 
tahs. The grammatical principles of these dialects, coincide, As a gene- 
ral fact, in their lexicography the letters f, r and v are wanting. The 
dialects derive their peculiarities, in a great m.easure, from interchanges 
between the sounds of 1 and n, b and p. d and t, g j^nd k, in some of which, 
there is a variance even in distant bands of the sar iu tribe. The language 
is transpositive. In its conjugations, the pronouns are incorporated with 
the verb, either as prefixes or suffixes. Its substantives are provided with 
adjective inflections, denoting size and quality. Its verbs, on the other 
hand, receive substantive inflections. Gender is, as a rule, lost sight of, 
in the uniform attempt, to preserve, by inflections, a distinction between 
aniHpte and inanimate, and personal or impersonal objects. It is remark* 



ETHNOLOGY. 



255 



able for the variety of its compounds, although the vocabulary itself, is 
manifestly constructed from monosyllabic roots. All its substantives 
admit of diminutives, but, in no instance, of augmentatives. Tbey also 
admit of derogative and prepositional inflections. The compnison of 
adjectives, is not, on the contrary, made by inflections, but by separate words. 
There is no dual number, but in all the dialects, so far as examined, a 
distinction is made in the plural of the first person, to denote the inclusion 
or exclusion of the object. There is no distinction between the pronoun, 
singular and plural, of the third person. The language has some redun- 
dancies, which would be pruned ofl^* by cultivation. It has many liquid 
and labial sounds. It has a soft flow and is easy of attainment. It is pe- 
culiarly rich and varied, in its compound terms for visible objects, and 
their motions or acts. Streams, mountains, vallies, and waters, in all their 
variety of appearance, are graphically described. It is equally suited to 
describe the phenomena of the heavens, the air, tempests, sounds, light, 
colours, motion, and the various phases of the clouds and planetary bodies. 
It is from this department, that a large portion of their peisonal names are 
taken. 

It is true that many of the grammatical principles of the Algonquin 
languages, are also developed in other stocks. Yet these stocks are not 
as well known. It was chiefly in the area of the Algonquin tribes, thai 
the British and French, and Dutch and Swedish colonists settled, and the 
result of enquiry, through a long period, has accumulated most materials 
in relation to this type of the American languages. Specific notices of 
each of the subdivisions of this stock, will be given under the appropriate 
names. 

The general synonyms for this nation are but few. The principal dif- 
ferences in the orthography, between the French and English wi iters 
consist in che latter's spelling the last syllable quin^ while the former em- 
ploy kin. In old encycloposdias and gazetteers, the phrase Algonqu.nen- 
sis, is used. The term Abernaquis, is also a French mode of annotation 
for the same word, but is rather applied at this time to a specific bat! 1. 
The word Algic, derived from the same root, has been applied by the 
writer to the entire circle of the Algonquin tribes, in their utmost former 
extent in North America. Mr. Gallatin has propost d the term " Algonkin- 
Lenape," as a philological denomination for this important family. Their 
own name for the race, is a question of some diversity of opinion. Those 
particular tribes, who were found on the Atlantic coast between the (-hes-j- 
peak-bay and the Hudson, called themselves Lenapes, generally w iih the 
prefixed or qualifying noun of Linno, or Lenno. Other tribes extinding 
over the largest area of the union, and of British America, inhabited by 
this stock, denote themselves as a race, by the term Anishinaba, that is, the 
common people. 

The term Lenape, signlfirs a male, and is identical in sense M'ith the 



ETHNOLOQY. 



Algonquin word laba. If Lenno, or Linno be, a» some contend, a term 
•denoting original^ they must be conceded to have had more forethought, 
tind a greater capacity for generalization, than other stocks have mani- 
fested, by calling themselves, Original Men. If, however, it only implies, 
IS others acquainted with this language, assert, common or general^ then is 
here perceived to be a perfect identity in the meaning of the two terms. 

Algonac, a village of the county of St. Clair, Michigan, which is 
pleasantly situated on the banks of the river St. Clair. It is a term de* 
rived from the word Algonqum, and akee^ earth or land. 

Algonquinensis, a term used in old gazetteers and geographical die 
tionaries, for the Algonquins. 

Alietans, a name for the Shoshones, or Snake Indians. See letans. 

Alibamons, or Alibamis, ancient forms of orthography for the tribe of 
the Alabamas, 

Alina, a settlement of Pinzandarc, New Spain, containing 20 Indian 
families, who have a commerce in maize and wax. 

Alipkonck, an Indian village which, in 1659, stood on the east banks 
of the river Hudson, between the influx of the Croton, then called by the 
Dutch Saehkill, and the Indian village of Sing Sing. [Osinsing.] Anee- 
bikong ? place of leaves, or rich foliage. 

Allca, an ancient province of the kingdom of Peru, south of Cuczo, in- 
habited by a race of natives, who made a vigorous stand against Manco 
Capac, the fourth emperor of the Incas, and called the conqueror. In 
this defence, they were favoured by the rugged character of the country, 
which abounds in woods, mountains, lakes, and gold and silver mines. 

Allegan, an agricultural and milling county of the state of Michigan, 
bordering on the east shores of lake Michigan. It is a derivative word, 
from Algonkin, and gan the penultimate syllable of the Odjibwa term 
Sa-gi-6-gan, a lake. 

Alleghany, the leading chain of mountains of the United States east 
of the Mississippi, also one of the two principal sources of the Ohio river. 
Indian tradition attributes the origin of this name to an ancient race of In- 
dians who were called Tallegewy, or AUegewy. This nation, tradition 
asserts, had spread themselves east of the Mississippi and of the Ohio. 
They were a warlike people, and defended themselves in long and bloody 
wars, but were overpowered and driven south by a confederacy of tribes, 
whose descendants still exist in the Algonquin and Iioquoia stocks. Suck 
is the account of the Delawares. 

Almoloia, a settlement of Zultepec in Nftw Spain, of 77 lodian familiei J 
also, in Metepec, in the same kingdom, of 156 families. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



257 



ALMOLOLOA.IAN, a Settlement in the district of Colima, New Spain, of 
60 Indian families. 

Alotepec, ib. has 67 families. 
Alozozingo, ib. has 110 families. 
Alpizagua, ib. has 36 families. 

Alpoieca, ib. has 42 families. Another, sa^e name, of 115 families. 
Alfoiecazingo, ib. has 140 families. 

Alponeca, ib. has 30 families. Another, same name, 77 families.- 
Altamaha, a river of Georgia. 

Altotonga, the name of a settlement of Xalapa, in New Spain. Tho 
word signifies in the Mexican language, hot and saltish water, and this 
comes from the intermingled qualities of two streams which originate in 
a mountain near to each other, and form by their junction a river which 
runs into the lake of Alchichica. 

Alzoui, a settlement of 190 Indian families, of Tlapa, in New Spain, 
or Mexico. They are industrious, cuhivating maize, cotton, French 
beans and rice. 

Almouchico, the Indian name for New England, on the map of 
"Novi Belgii," published at Amsterdam in 1659. 

Amacaches, a nation of Indians of Brazil, of the province of Rio 
Janiero. They inhabit the mountains south of the city. They are 
numerous, and much dreaded, on account of the desperate incursions they 
have made into the Portuguese settlements. Their weapons are darts, 
and macanaw, a kind of club made of a very heavy wood. They poison 
their arrows and lances. 

Amalistes, a band of Algonquins, living on the St. Lawrence, and num- 
bering 500 in 1760. 

Amanalco, an Indian settlement of the district of Metepeque, Mexico, 
of 1 224 families. 

Amapaes, a barbarous nation of Indians in New Andalusia, to the west 
of the river Orinoco, near the mountains of Paria. They are valiant and 
hardy ; sincere and faithful in their engagements. They live by the 
chace and by fishing. They make arms, which are tipped by vegetable 
poisons. They are at war with the Isaperices. Their territory is called, 
after them, Amapaya. 

Amafllcan, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 15 Indian 
families. 

Amatepec, an Indian settlement of Zultepec, Mexico, situated on the 
top of a mountain, consisting of 80 families. Another settlement, of the 
same name, in the district of Toltontepec, has 15 Indians families. Both 
have a cold temperature. 

Amaticlan, a settlement of Huitepec, in Mexico, containing 43 Indian 
families. 



17 



258 



ETHNOLOGY. 



Amatinchan, a settlement of Tlapa, Mexico, containing 62 Indiaa 
families. 

Amatlan', a settlement of Tanzitaro, Mexico, containing 60 Indian 
families. Another settlement of San Louis, has 380 familits. Another, 
in the district of Cordova, has 220. Another, in Zacailan 248. Ano- 
ther, in Cozamaopan has 150. All these bear the sume name, with the 
prefix of the dedicatory patron, Santa Ana. 

Amboy, a bay of New Jersey. This part of the state was occupied, in 
ancient time, by a tribe or band of the Minci, who were called S luhi- 
kans. 

Amealco, a settlement of Gluerataro, Mexico, containing 38 Indian 
families. 

Ameca, a settlement of Autlan, Mexico, containing 43 Indian families. 
Amecameca, a settlement of Chalco, Mexico, containing 570 Indian 
families. 

Amecaque, a settlement of Calpa, Mexico, containing 275 Indian 
families. 

America ; no nation of Indians on this continent, had, so far as we know, 
ever generalized sufficiently to bestow a generic name on the continent. 
The Algonquin terms " Our Country," Aindanukkya.n^, and " The West," 
Kabean, were probably the most comprehensive which their intercourse 
or ideas required. Equivalents for these phrases might be, perhaps, suc- 
cessfully sought among all the most advanced tribes. The instances here 
given are from the Odjibwa dialect. 

Amicways, or Amicawaes, a tribe or family of Indians, who are spoken 
of by the French writers as having formerly inhabited the Manatonline 
chain of islands in lake Huron. The term is from Amik, a beaver. The 
Ottowas settled here, after their discomfiture, along with the Adirondacks, 
on the St. Lawrence, 

Amik-eminis, the group of Beaver islands of Lake Michigan. The east- 
ernmost of this group is called Amik-aindaud, or the Beaver-house. These 
islands are inhabited by Chippewas. In 1840, they numbered 199 souls, 
of whom 39 were men, 51 women, and 109 children. All were engaged 
in the chase, or in fishing, and none in agriculture. Their chief was 
called Kinwabekizze. 

Amikwug, a wild roving nation northwest of the sources of the Missis- 
sippi. See Beaver Indians. 

Amilpa, a settlement of Xochimilco, in Mexico, containing 730 Indian 
families, who iive by agriculture. 

Amtltepec, a settlement of Juquila, M., containing 14 Indian families. 

Amixocores, a barbarous nation of Indians of Brazil. They innabit 
the woods and mountains south of Rio Janerio. They are cruel and 
treacherous. They are at continual war with the Portuguese. Very little 
is known of the territory they inhabit, or of their manners. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



259 



Ammougkaugen, a name used in 1659, for the southern branch of the 
Piscataqua river. 

Amola, or Amula, a judicial district in Guadaxalara, Mexico. In the 
Mexican tongue, it signifies the land of many trees, as it abounds in trees 
The change from o to u in the word, is deemed a corruption. 

Amoltepec, a settlement of Teozaqualco, Mexico, containing 96 Indian 
families. 

Amonoosuck, an Indian name which is borne by two rivers of New 
Hampshire. Both take their rise in the White Mountains. The upper 
Amonoosuck enters the Connecticut River, at Northumberland, * near 
upper Coos. The lower, or Great Amonoosuck, enters the same river 
above the town of Haverhill, in lower Coos. 

Amopocan, a settlement of Indians of Cuyo, in Chili, situated along the 
shores of a river. 

Amozaque, a settlement of Puebla de los Angelos, in a hot and dry tem- 
perature, containing 586 Indian families. 

Ampones, a barbarous nation of Indians, in Paragnay. They inhabit 
the forest to the south of the Rio de la Plata. They are of small 
Stature. They are divided into several tribes. They are courageous. 
They live on wild tropical fruits, and on fish which are taken in certain 
lakes. They preserve these by smoking. They enjoy a fine country and 
climate. They find gold in the sand of their rivers, and have some traffic 
with the city of Conception. Some converts have been made to the Cath 
olic faith. 

Amues, a settlement and silver mine of San Luis de la Paz, in Mexico. 
It has 43 Indian families, besides 93 of Mustees and Mullatoes. They 
subsist by digging in the mines. 

Amurcas, a nation of barbarous Indians, descended from the Ranches, 
in New Grenada. They live in the forests to the south of the river Mag- 
dalena. But little is known of them, 

Amuskeag, the Indian name of a fall m the river Merrimack, New 
Hampshire, 16 miles below Concord, and 7 miles below Hookset falls. 

Ana, Santa. Of the fifty-five names of places in Mexico, or New Spain, 
mentioned by Alcedo, which bear this name, seven are the seat of a joint 
population of 544 Indian families. Of these, 31 are in Zaqualpa ; 117 in 
Zultepec; 124 in Toluca ; 134 in Cholula : 18 in Yautepec ; 25 in 
Mitia; 70 in Amaqueca ; and 149 in Huehuetlan. 

Anahuac, the ancient Indian name of New Spain, or Mexico. The 
valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, is, according to Humboldt, situated in 
the centre of the cordillera of Anahuac. This valley is of an oval form. 
Its length is ISf leagues, estimating from the entry of the Rio Tenango 
into lake Chalco to the foot of the Cerro de Sincoque, and 12^ leagues in 
breadth, from St. Gabriel to the sources of the Rio de Escapusalco. Its 
territorial extent is 2441 square leagues, of which only 22 square leagues 



260 



ETHNOLOGY. 



are occupied by lakes, being less than a tenth of the whole surface. The 
circumference of the valley, estimating around the crest of the mountains, 
is 67 leagues. This crest is very elevated in most parts, anJ ernbraces the 
great volcanoes of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztacchihuatl. There 
are five lakes in this valley, of which, that of Tezcuco is the largest. Ail 
are much diminished in the quantity of water they yield, since the lOtb 
century, which is owing, in part, to the destruction of trees by the Span- 
iards, but most directly to the canal of Huehuetoco, cut through a moun- 
tain, by which the waters are drawn into the river Panui'o, and thus find 
their way into the Atlantic. By this work, the city of Mexico itself was 
freed from all effects of periodical inundation, and the site enlarged and 
rendered better suited to streets and carriages. The waters of lake Tez- 
cuco are impregnated with muriate and carbonate of soda. Those of 
Xochimilco are the most pure and limpid. Humboldt found their specific 
gravity to be 1.0009, when distilled water at the temperature of 54° 
Fahrenheit, was 1.000, and that of Tezcuco 1.0215. 

Of the five lakes mentioned, Xochimilco and Chalco contain 6^ square 
leagues; Tezcuco, lOJ^; San Christoval, and Zumpango, 1^-^. 

The valley is a basin, surrounded by an elevated wall of porphyry moun- 
tains. I'he bottom of this basin is 2,277 metres, or 7,468 feet above 
the sea. 

Analco, a settlement of Guadalaxara, in Mexico, containing 40 Indian 
families. 

Anasaguntakook, a band of the Abenaki, on the sources of the Andros- 
coggin, in Maine. 

Ancamares, a nation of Indians inhabiting the shores of the river Ma- 
dera. They are very warlike and robust. In 1683 they attacked the 
Portuguese, and compelled them to give up the navigation of the river. 
They are divided into different tribes. The most numerous are the An- 
camares, who inhabit the shores of the river Cayari. 

Ancas, a nation of Indians in Peru, who, on the 6th Januar}'-, 1725, 
were overwhelmed and destroyed by the ruins of a mountain which burst 
forth by an earthquake. Fifteen thousand souls perished on that occasion. 

Ance, or Range's band of Chippewas, living at Point Si Ignace, on 
the straits of Michilimackinac, in Michigan. This band, in 1840, as de- 
noted by the annuity pay rolls, numbered 193 ; of whom, 33 were men, 
54 women, and 106 children. They subsist in part by hunting the small 
furred animals still existing in the country, and in part by fishing. They 
migrate from place to place, as the season varies, plant very little, and are 
addicted to the use of ardent spirits. 

Anclote, an island on the southwest coast of Florida ; also, a river 
flowing into the gulf at that locality, which is also called, in the Seminole 
dialect,^ tfee Est-has-hotee. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



261 



Ancdteres, a nation of infidel Indians inhabiting the forests of the river 
Napo, in Quito. They are numerous, savage, treacherous, and inconstant. 

Andastks, a nation formerly inhabiting the territory on the southern 
shores of lake Erie, southwest of the Senecas. They were extirpated by 
the Ir )quois. 

Andaig Weos, or Crow's Flesh, a hereditary chief of the Chippewa 
nation, living towards the close of the last century at the ancient Indian 
village of La Pointe Chegoimegon, on lake Superior, He possessed quali- 
ties, which, under a different phasis of society, would have developed 
themselves in marked acts of benevolence. Numbers of anecdotes, favour- 
able to his character, are related of him, and have been handed down by 
tradition among the French residents on that remote frontier. Although 
a warrior, engaged in frequent e.xpeditions against the enemies of his tribe, 
he opposed the shedding of the blood of white men who were encountered, 
in a defenceless state, in the pursuits of trade. He also resisted the plun- 
der of their property. He had a strong natural sense of justice, accom- 
panied with moral energy, and gave utterance to elevated and ennobling 
sentiments in his intercourse. 

Andreas, San. A settlement of Texupilco, in Mexico, containing 77 
Indian families ; another of Toluco, of 134 ; another in Tlatotepec, of 33; 
another in Tuxtla, of 1170; another in Guejozingo, of 15; another in 
Papalotepec, of 20; another in Hiscoutepec, of 68 ; another in Tepehua- 
can, of 40 ; all under the same dedicatory name. 

Androscoggin, the main western source of the river Kennebec, in 
Maine. 

Angagua, Santiago De ; a settlement of Valladolid, Mexico, containing 
22 Indian families. 

Angamocutiro, a settlement of the same district with the preceding, con- 
taining 106 Indian families. 

Angaraes, a province of Peru, containing six curacies or parishes of 
Indians. 

Angeles, Puebla De Los, the capitol of the province of Tlaxc^la, in New 
Spain, or Mexico, founded in 1533. The entire number of Indian fami- 
lies within this important jurisdiction is 3,200, which, at the ordinary rate 
of the estimation of Indian population here, that is, five souls to a family, 
gives an aggregate of 16,000. These are descendants of the ancient 
Aztecs, who inhabited the country on its conquest. 

This is, however, but the population of the chief town or capital. The 
entire intendency of Pueblos de los Angeles contained, in 1793, 508,098 
souls. Of this number, 373,752 were Indians of pure blood, divided into 
187,531 males, and 186,221 females. There were also 77,908 of the 
mixtd race, divided into 37,318 males, and 40,590 females. But 54,980 
were Spaniards, or whites, exclusive of 585 seculir ecclesiastics, 446 
monks, and 427 nuns. 



262 



ETHNOLOGY. 



This preponderance of the native Indian population is still more strik- 
ing in the government of liaxcala, which, of course, includes the capital 
above named. In 1793, it contained a population of 59,177 souls; of 
which, 42,878 were Indians, divided into 21,849 males, and 21,029 
females. The town is governed by a Cacique, and four Indian Alcaldes, 
who represent the ancient heads of the four quarters, still called Teepecti- 
pac, Ocotelalco, Gluiahtuitztlan, and Tizatlan. By virtue of a royal cedula 
of 16th April, 1585, the whites have no seat in the municipality. The 
Cacique, or Indian Governor, enjoys the honors of an alferez real. Not- 
withstanding the zeal of a Spanish intendant general, the progress of the 
inhabitants in industry and prosperity has been extremely slow.'^ The se- 
cret of this is, perhaps, revealed in the fact that four fifths of the whole 
property belongs to mort-main proprietors, that is to say, to communities 
of monks, to chapters, corporations, and hospitals. Their trade is also de- 
pressed by the enormous price of carriage from the table lands, and tho 
want of beasts of burden. 

The geology and antiquities of this part of Mexico, are equally interest- 
ing. The intendency of Puebla is traversed by the high cordilleras of 
Anahuac, which, beyond the 18th degree of latitude, spreads into a plain, 
elevated from 1,800 to 2,000 metres above the level of the ocean, or from 
5,905 to 6,561 feet. In this intendency is also the Popocatepetl, the high- 
est mountain in Mexico. Humboldt's measurement of this volcano makes 
it 600 metres (1,968 feet,) higher than the most elevated summit of the 
old continent. It is, indeed, only exceeded between Panama and Behring's 
Straits, by Mt. St. Elias. 

The table land of Puebla exhibits remarkable vestiges of ancient civil- 
ization. The fortifications of Tlaxcala are posterior in the date of theii 
construction to the great pyramid of Cholula. This pyramid, or teocaJli, 
is the most stupendous monument erected by the race. Its squares are 
arranged in exact accordance with the astronomical parallels. It is con 
structed in stages or terraces, the highest of which is 177 feet above the 
plain. It has a base of 1423 feet. By a passage excavated into the north 
side of it, a few years ago, it is found to be solid, and to consist of alternate 
layers of brick and clay. Its centre has not. however, been reached, lit- 
height exceeds the third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the ^roup oi 
Ghiza. In its base, however, it exceeds that of all other edifices found by 
travellers in the old continent ; it is almost double that of the great pyra- 
mid of Cheops. To conceive of the vastness of the structure, let the tra- 
veller imagine a square four times the size of the Place Vendome, piled 
up with brick, in terraces, twice the utmost height of the palace of the 
Louvre. 

The Indians of the province of Tlaxcala speak three languages, differ- 
ing from one another, namely: the Mexican, Totonac, and Tlapanac. 
The first is peculiar to the inhabitants of Puebla, Cholula, and Tlascalla ; 



ETHNOLOGY. 



263 



the second to the inhabitants of Zacatlan ; and the third is preserved in 
the environs of Tlapa. The population of the entire intendency of Pue- 
bla, in 1803, that is, ten years after the census above noted, had advanced 
to 813,300 in an extent of 2,696 square leagues, giving 301 inhabitants to 
the square league. Small as this may appear, it is four times greater than 
that of Sweden, and nearly equal to that of the Kingdom of Arragon. 

Anialts, a barbarous nation of South American Indians, in the llanos 
of Casanxire and Meta, in the new kingdom of Grenada. They are de- 
scended from the Betoyes. They are very numerous, and of a gentle 
nature. The Jesuits established a mission among them in 1722. 

Annaciois, or Annacous, a barbarous nation of Indians, of the province 
of Puerto Seguro, in Brazil. They inhabit the woods and mountains to 
the west, and near the rivers Grande and Yucara. They are in a con- 
stant state of warfare, night and day. They are irreconcileable enemies 
of the Portuguese, whose colonies and cultivated lands they continually 
infest, and which they destroyed in 1687. 

Annemosing, the name of the Otto was, and Chippewas, for the Fox 
Islands, of lake Michiga?,. It is derived of Annemose, a young dog or 
fox, and ing^ a partich denoting place, or locality. 

Annemikeens, a Chippewa hunter of Red River, in Hudson's bay, I 
who survived a con/lxct with a grisly bear. After being terribly lacerated, | 
in his face and limby, but not deprived of consciousness, he affected death. • 
The animal then ?eized him gently by the neck, and dragged him to a 
thicket, where he was left, as it was thought, to be eaten when the calls 
of hunger sho'j>' demand. From this position he arose, first setting up, 
and binding T,rac3 of his lacerated flesh down, and afterwards rose, and 
succeeded ir reaching his wigwam, where, by skill in the use of simples, 
his woundf v/ere entirely healed. The name signifies little thunder, be- 
ing a co-^rMvmd from Annimikee, thunder, and the diminutive inflection ( 
in us. 

ANNV'i'fELiGo, a hammock brought to notice in the late war with the 
Serainoles, in Florida. It is situated east of the Withlacooche river. 

Anglaima, a settlement of locaima, in New Granada, containing a 
small, but indefinite population of Indians. 

AiNTALis, a barbarous and warlike nation of Indians, in the kingdom 
of Chile, to the west of Coquimbo. They valorously opposed the pro- 
gress of the Inca Yupanqui, compelling him, in the end, to terminate 
his conquests on the other side of the river Maule, the last boundary of 
Peru. 

Antiqhities. See the articles Grave Creek, Marrietta, Circleville, <fec. 

Anthony St. ; the falls of, being the fourth and lowermost of the per- 
pendicular, or prominent falls of the Mississippi, and by far the greatest. 

The first fall of this stream is the Kakabika, situated about half a day's 
journey below Itasca lake; the second is called Pukagama, and occurs be- 



264 



ETHNOLOGY. 



low the influx of the Leech lake branch. The third is below Elk river 
and is passable in boats and canoes. St. Anthony's is the most consider 
able of the series, and the only one which presents an abrupt plunge of 
the stream from horizontal rocks. They were thus named by Hennepin, 
about 1680. By the Dacotah Indians, who inhabit the country, they are. 
called Haha. It is at this point, that the Mississippi, which gathers its 
waters from high table lands, and has its course, for several hundreds of 
miles, through diluvions superimposed on the primitive, first plunges into 
the great secondary formation. For more than a thousand miles, in its 
way southward, its banks are rendered imposing and precipitous by this 
formation. At or near the Grand Tower, and its adjunct precipice, on the 
Missouri shore, this formation ceases, and the river enters the great delta, 
which still confines it, for a like distance, before it expands itself, by its 
bifurcations, and final exit, in the Gulf of Mexico, at the Balize. 

Antonio, San. The follov*ring statistical facts, denote the Indian popu- 
lation, of sundry settlements, bearing this name, within the former govern- 
ment of Nevy Spain, now Mexico. In the limits of Tollman, 32 families ; 
in Tampolomon, 128 ; in Toluca 51 ; in Metepec 261 : in Coronango, 
44 ; in Huehuetlan, 140 ; in Chapala, 27. 

Apacahund, or White Eyes, a Delaware chief of note, of the era of 
the American re volution j who is frequently mentioned in documents of 
the times. 

Apaces, San Juan Bautista De, a settlement of Zelaga in the province 
and bishopric of Mechoacan, containing 135 Indian families. Another 
settlement, of the same name, with the dedicatory title of Santa Maria^ in 
the district of Zitaguaro, contains 24 families. 

Apaches, a nation of Indians, located between the Rio del Norte and the 
sources of the Nuaces, who were reported, in 1817, at 3,500. In an 
official report submitted to Congress, in 1837, their numbers within 
striking distance of the western frontier," are vaguely put at, 20j280. 



Apallachians ; a nation of Indians who formerly inhabited the ex- 
treme southern portion of the United States, and have left their name in 
the leading range of the Apallachian mountains. In 1539 De Soto found 
them in Florida, a term at that era comprehending also the entire area of 
the present states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and other portions 
of the southern territory. They were numerous, fierce, and valorous. 
They were clothed in the skins of wild beasts. They used bows and 
arrows, clubs and spears. They did not, as many nations of barbarians do, 
poison their darts. They were temperate, drinking only water. They 
did not make wars on slight pretences, or for avarice, but to repress at- 
tacks, or remedy injustice. They treated their prisoners with humanity, 
and like other persons of their households. They were long lived, some 
persons reaching a hundred years. They worshipped the sun, to which 
they sang hymns, morning and evening. These facts are to be gleaned 
from the narrative. What were their numbers, how far they extended 
their jurisdiction, what were their affiliations by language, customs, and 
institutions with other tribes, cannot be accurately decided. Much that 
is said of their civil and military polity, buildings, ceremonies and other 
traits, applies to the Floridian Indians generally, and may be dismissed as 
either vague, or not characteristic of the Appalachians. A quarto vol- 
ume was published in London in 1666, by John Davies, under the title 
of a " History of the Caribby Indians," in which he traces the caribs of 
the northern groups of the West Indies, to the Apallachians, and relates 
many incidents, and narrates a series of surprising wars and battles, 
reaching, in their effects, through the Mississippi valley up to the great 
lakes, which have the appearance of fable. How much of this account, 
which speaks of " cattle" and herds," may be Rafted on ancient tra- 
ditions, it is impossible to tell. There are some proofs of such an an- 
cient civilisation in the Ohio valley and other sections of the country, but 
they are unconnected with any Indian traditions, which have survived, 
unless we consider the mounds and remains of antique forts as monu- 
mental evidences of these reputed wars. The Lenapee accounts of these 
ancient wars with the Tallagees or Allegewy, may be thought to refer to 
this ancient people, who had, if this conjecture be correct, extended 
their dominion to the middle and northern latitudes of the present area 
of the United States, prior to the appearance of the Algonquin and Iro 
/ quies races. Mr. Irving has suggested the name of Apallachia, or AUe 
gania, derived from the stock, for this division of the continent. 



265 



LAIGUA&E. 



LECTURES ON THE GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE 

OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGE. 

The course of lectures, of which the following are part, were delivered 
before the St. Mary's committee of the Algic Society. Two of them only 
have been published. They are here continued from the article " Indian 
Languages," at page 202 of the "Narrative of the Discovery of the actual 
Source of the Mississippi, in Itasca Lake," published by the Harpers, in 
1834. The family of languages selected as the topic of inquiry, is the 
Algonquin. All the examples employed are drawn from that particular 
type of it which is called Chippewa, in our transactions with them, but 
which they uniformly pronounce themselves, Od-jib-wa. These terms 
are employed as perfect synonyms. The phrase " Odjibwa-Algonquin," 
wherever it occurs, is intended to link, in the mind of the inquirer, the 
species and the genus (if we may borrow a term from natural history) of 
the language, but is not fraught with, or intended to convey, any additional 
idea. The three terms relate to one and the same people. 



LECTURE III. 

Observations on the Adjective — Its distinction into two classes denoted by the presence 
or absence of vitality — Examples of the animates and inanimates — Mode of their 
conversion into substantives — How pronouns are applied to these derivatives, and the 
manner of forming corppound terms from adjective bases, to describe the various natu- 
ral phenomena — The application of these principles in common conversation, and in 
the description of natural and artificial objects — Adjectives always preserve the dis- 
tinction of number — Numerals — Arithmetical capacity of the language — The unit 
exists in duplicate. 

1. It has been remarked that the distinction of w^ords into animates and 
inanimates, is a principle intimately interwoven throughout the structure 
of the language. It is, in fact, so deeply imprinted upon its grammatical 
forms, and is so perpetually recurring, that it may be looked upon, not 
only as forming a striking peculiarity of the language, but as constituting 
the fundamental principle of its structure, from which all other rules have 
derived tiieir limits, and to which they have been made to conform. No 
class of words appears to have escaped its impress. Whatever concords 

266 



LANGUAGE. 



267 



other laws impose, they all agree, and are made subservient in the estab- 
lishment of this. 

It might appear to be a useless distinction in the adjective, when the 
substantive is thus marked ; but it will be recollected that it is in the 
plural of the substantive only, that the distinction is marked. And we 
shall presently have occasion to show, that redundancy of forms, are, to 
considerable extent, obviated in practice. 

For the origin of the principle itself, we need look only to nature, which en- 
dows animate bodies with animate properties and qualities, and vice versa. 
But it is due to the tribes who speak this language, to have invented one set of 
adjective symbols to express the ideas peculiarly appropriate to the former, 
and another set applicable, exclusively, to the latter ; and to have given 
the words good and bad, black and white, great and small, handsome and 
ugly, such modifications as are practically competent to indicate the ge- 
neral nature of the objects referred to, whether provided with, or destitute 
of the vital principle. And not only so, but by the figurative use of 
these forms, to exalt inanimate masses into the class of living beings, or 
to strip the latter of the properties of life — a principle of much importance 
to their public speakers. 

This distinction is shown in the following examples, in which it will be 
ol^served, that the inflection izzi, generally denotes the personal, and au^ 
un, or icud, the impersonal forms. 



Adj 


Inanimate. 




Adj : Aiiimate, 




Bad 


Monaud 


ud 


Monaud 


izzi. 


Ugly 


Gushkoonaug 


wud 


Gushkoonaug 


oozzi 


Beautiful 


Bishegaindaug wud 


Bishegaindaug oozzi. 


Strong 


Song 


un 


Song 


izzi. 


Soft 


Nok 


un 


Nok 


izzi. 


Hard 


Mushkow 


au 


Mushkow 


izzi. 


Smooth 


Shoiskw 


au 


Shoisk 


oozzi. 


Black 


Mukkuddaw 


. au 


Mukkuddaw 


izzi. 


White 


Waubishk 


au 


Waubishk 


izzi. 


Yellow 


Ozahw 


au 


Ozahw 


izzi. 


Red 


Miskw 


au 


Miskvv 


izzi. 


Blue 


Ozhahwushkw 


au 


Ozhahwushkw 


izzi. 


Sour 


Sheew 


un 


Sheew 


izzi. 


Sweet 


Weeshkob 


un 


Weeshkob 


izzi. 


Light 


Naung 


un 


Naung 


izzi. 



It is not, however, in all cases, by mere modifications of the adjective, 
that these distinctions are expressed. Words totally different in sound, 
and evidently derived from radically different roots, are, in some few instan- 
ces, employed, as in the following examples : 



268 



LANGUAGE. 



Adj: Inanimate. Adj: Animate. 



Good 


Onisheshin 


Minno. 


Bad 


Monaudud 


Mudjee. 


Large 


Mitshau 


Mindiddo. 


Small 


Puogee 


Uggaushi. 


Old 


Geekau 


Gitizzi. 



It may be remarked of these forms, that although the impersonal will, in 
some instances, take the personal inflections, the rule is not reciprocated, and 
minno, and mindiddo, and gitizzi, and all words similarly situated, remain 
unchangeably animates. The word pungee, is limited to the expression 
of quantity, and its correspondent uggaushi, to size, or quality. Kishe- 
da, (hot) is restricted to the heat of a fire ; keezhauta, to the heat of the 
sun. There is still a third term to indicate the natural heat of the body, 
Kizzizoo. Mitshau (large) is generally applied to countries, lakes, riv- 
ers, 6lc. Mindiddo, to the body, and gitshee, indiscriminately. Onishi- 
shin, and its correspondent onishishsha, signify, handsome or fair, as well 
as good. Kwonaudj a. a. and kwonaudj ewun a. i. mean, strictly,, hand- 
some, and imply nothing further. Minno, is the appropriate personal 
form for good. Mudgee and monaudud, may reciprocally change gen- 
ders, the hist by the addition of i-e-e, and the second by altering ud to 
izzi. 

Distinctions of this kind are of considerable importance in a practical 
f point of view, and their observance or neglect, are noticed with scrupulous 
exactness hy the Indians. The want of inanimate forms to such words as 
happy, sorrowful, brave, sick &lc. creates no confusion, as inanimate nouns 
cannot, strictly speaking, take upon themselves such qualities, and when 
they do — as they sometimes do, by one of those extravagant figures of 
speech, which are used in their tales of transformations, the animate forms 
ansv^^er all purposes. For in these tales the whole material creation may 
be clothed with animation. The rule, as exhibited in practice, is limited, 
with sufficient accuracy, to the boundaries prescribed by nature. 

To avoid a repetition of forms, were the noun and the adjective both to 
be employed in their usual relation, the latter is endowed with a pronomi- 
nal, or substantive inflection. And the use of the noun, in its separate 
form, is thus wholly superceded. Thus onishishin, a. i. and onishishsha, 
a. a. become Wanishishing, that which is good, or fair, and Wanish- 
ishid, he who is good or fair. The foUovv'-ing examples will exhibit this 
rule, under each of its forms. 

Compound or Noun-Adjective Animate. 



Black Mukkuddaw izzi Makuddaw izzid. 

White Waubishk izzi Wyaubishk izzid. 

Yellow Ozahw izzi Wazauw izzid. 

Red Miskw._ izzi Mashk oozzid. 

Strong Song izzi Song izzid. 



LANGUAGE. 



269 



Noan-Adjective Inanimate. 
Black Mukkuddaw au Mukkuddaw aug. 

White Waubishk au Wj^aubisiik aug. 

Yellow Ozahw au Wazhauw aug. 

Red Mishkvv au Mishkw aug. 

The animate forms in these examples will be recognized, as exhibiting 
a further extension of the rule, mentioned in the preceding chapter, by 
which substantives are formed from the indicative of the verb by a permu- 
tation of the vowels. And these forms are likewise rendered plural in 
the manner there mentioned. They also undergo changes to indicate the 
various persons. For instance onisbisha is thus declined to mark the 
person. 

Wanishish-eyaun I (am) good, or fair. 

Wanishish-eyun Thou (art) good, or fair. 

Wanishish id He (is) good or fair. 

Wanishish-eyang We (are) good or fair (ex.) 

Wanishish-eyung We (are) good a fair (in.) 

Wanishish-eyaig Ye (are) good or fair. 

Wanishish-idigj They (are) good or fair. 

The inanimate forms, being without person, are simply rendered plural 
by in, changing maiskwaug, to maiskwaug-in, &c. &c. The verbal sig- 
nification which these forms assume, as indicated in the words am, art, is, 
are, is to be sought in the permutative change of the first syllable. Thus 
is changed to wa, muk to mak, waub to wy-aub, ozau to vvazau, misk 
to maisk, (fee. The pronoun, as is usual in the double compounds, is 
formed wholly by the inflections eyaun, eyun, 6lc. 

The strong tendency of the adjective to assume a personal, or pronom- 
ico-substantive form, leads to the employment of many words in a par- 
ticular, or exclusive sense. And in any future practical attempts with the 
language, it wib be found greatly to facilitate its acquisition if the adjec- 
tives are arranged in distinct classes, separated by this characteristic prin- 
ciple of their application. The examples we have given are chiefly those 
which may be considered strictly animate, or inanimate, admit of double 
forms, and are of general use. Many of the examples recorded in the 
original manuscripts employed in these lectures, are of a more concrete 
character, and, at the same time, a more limited use. Thus shaugwewe, 
is a weak person, nokaugumme, a weak drmk, nokaugwud, a weak, or 
soft piece of wood. Sussagau, is fine, but can only be applied to per- 
sonal appearance : beesau, indicates fine grains. Keewushkwa is giddy, 
and keevvushkwabee, giddy with drink, both being restricted to the third 
person. Songun and songizzi, are the personal and impersonal forms of 
strong, as given above. But Mushkowaugumme, is strong drink. In 
like manner the two words for hard, as above, are restricted to solid sub- 



270 



LANGUAGE. 



Stances. Sunnuhgud is hard (to endure,) waindud, is easy (to perform.), 
Songedaa is brave, Shaugedaa cowardly, keezhinzhowizzi, active, kizhe- 
kau, swift, onaunegoozziiively, minwainduni happy, gushkwaindum, sor- 
rowful, but all these forms are confined to the third person of the indica- 
tive, singular. Pibbigwau, is a rough or knotted substance. Pubbiggo- 
ozzi, a rough person. Keenwau is long, or tall, (any solid mass.) Kay- 
nozid is a tall person. Tahkozid a short person. Wassayau is light j 
wassaubizzoo, the light of the eye ; wasshauzha, the light of a star, or any 
luminous body. Keenau is sharp, keenaubikud, a sharp knife, or stone. 
Keezhaubikeday, is hot metal, a hot stove, &c. Keezhaugummeda, is hot 
water. Aubudgeeton, is useful, — a useful thing. Wauweeug is frivolous,: 
any thing frivolous in word, or deed. Tubbu^hish, appears to be a gene- 
ral term for low. Ishpimming is high in the air. Ishpau, is applied to 
any high fixture, as a house, &c. Ishpaubik^u is a high rock. Taush- 
kaubikau, a split rock. 

These combinations and limitations meet the inquirer at every step. 
They are the current phrases of the language. They present shorty 
ready, and often beautiful modes of expression. But as they shed light, 
both upon the idiom and genius of the language, I shall not scruple to add 
further examples and illustrations. Ask a Chippewa, the name for rock,, 
and he will answer awzhebik. The generic import of aubik, has been ex- 
plained. Ask him the name for red rock, and he will answer miskwau- 
bik, — for white rock, and he will answer waubaubik, for black rock 
mukkuddawaubik, — for yellow rock, ozahwaubik, — for green rock, oz- 
hahwushkwaubik, — for bright rock, wassayaubik, for smooth rock, shois- 
hkwaubik, &,c. compounds in which the words red, white, black, yellow, 
&c. unite with aubik. Pursue this inquiry and the following forms will 
be elicited. 



Miskwaubik-ud. It (is) a red rock. 

Waubaubik-ud. It (is) a white rock. 

Mukkuddawaubik-ud. It (is) a black rock. 

Ozahwaubik-ud. It (is) a yellow rock. 

Wassayaubik-ud. It (is) a bright rock. 

Shoiskwaubik-ud. It (is) a smooth rock. 

Personal. 

Miskwaubik-izzi. He (is) a red rock, ^ 

Waubaubik-izzi. ' He (is) a white rock. 

Mukkuddavvaubik-izzi. He (is) a black rock. 

Ozahwaubik-izzi. He (is) a yellow rock. 

Wassayaubik-izzi. He (is) a bright rock. 

Shoiskwaubik-izzi. He (is) a smooth rock. 
Add bun to these terms, and they are made to have passed away, — pre* 



LANGUAGE. 



271 



fix tah to them, and their future appearance is indicated. The word "is" 
ia ihe translations, ahhough marked with brackets, is not deemed wholly 
gratuitous. I'here is, strictly speaking, an idea of existence given to these 
xjorapounds, by the particle au in aubic, which seems to be indirectly a 
derivative fiom that great and fundamental root of the language iau. Bik, 
is, apparently, the radix of the expression for " rock." 

Let this mode of interrogation be continued, and extended to other ad- 
jectives, or the same adjectives applied to other objects, and results equally 
regular and numerous will be obtained. Minnis, we shall be told, is an 
island : miskominnis, a red island ; mukkaddaminnis, a black island ; wau- 
beminnis, a while island, &c. Annokwut, is a cloud ; miskwaunakwut, a 
red cloud; mukkuddawukwut, a black cloud; w^aubahnokwut, a white 
cloud ; ozahwushkwahnokwut, a blue cloud, &c. Neebe is the specific 
term for water ; but is not generally used in combination with the adjec- 
tive. The word guma^ like aubo^ appears to be a generic term for water, 
or potable liquids. Hence the following terms : — 

Gitshee, Great. Gitshiguma, Great water 

Nokun, Weak. Nokauguma, Weak drink. 

Mushkowau, Strong. Mushkowauguma, Strong drink. 

Weeshkobun, Sweet. Weeshkobauguma, Sweet drink. 

Sheewun, Sour. Sheewauguma, Sour drink. 

Weesugun, Bitter. Weesugauguma, Bitter drink. 

Minno, Good. Minwauguma, Good drink. 

Monaudud, Bad. Mahnauguma, Bad drink. 

Miskwau, Red. Miskwauguma, Red drink. 

Ozahwau, Yellow. Ozahwauguma, Yellow drink. 

Weenun, Dirty. Weenauguma, Dirty water. 

Peenud, Clear. Peenauguma, Clear Water. 

From minno, and from monaudud, good and bad, are derived the fol- 
lowing terms. Minnopogw^ud, it tastes well; minnopogoozzi, he tastes 
well. Mauzhepogwud, it tastes bad ; mawzhepogoozzi, he tastes bad. 
Minnomaugwud, it smells geod ; minnomaugoozzi, he smells good ; mag- 
ghemaugawud, it smells bad ; mawhemaugoozzi, he smells bad. The in- 
flectiofis gwud, and izzi, here employed, are clearly indicative, as in other 
combinations, of the words it and him. 

Baimwa is sound. Baimwawa, the passing sound. Minwawa, a 
pleasant sound. Minwawa, a pleasant sound. Maunwawa, a disagree- 
able sound. Mudwayaushkau, the sound of waves dashing on the shore. 
Mudwayaunnemud, the sound of winds. Mudway au kooskau, the 
sound of falling trees. Mudwakumigishin, the sound of a person falling 
Hpbn the earth. Mudwaysin, the sound of any inanimate mass filling on 
the earth. These examples might be continued ad infinitum. Every mo- 
dification of circumstances — almost every peculiarity of thought is ex- 



272 



LANGUAGE. 



pressed by some modification of the orthography. Enough has been givefc 
to prove that the adjective combines itself with the substantive, the verb 
and the pronoun — that the combinations thus produced are numerous, 
afford concentrated modes of conveying ideas, and oftentimes happy terms 
of expression. Numerous and prevalent as these forms are, they do not^ 
however, preclude the use of adjectives in their simple forms. The use 
of the one, or of the other appears to be generally at the option of the 
speaker. In most cases brevity or euphony dictates the choice. Usage 
results from the application of these principles. There may be rules rest- 
ing upon a broader basis, but if so, they do not appear to be very obvious. 
Perhaps the simple adjectives are oftenest employed before verbs and nouns,, 
in the first and second persons singular. 



Ningee minno neebau-nabun, 
Ningee minno weesin, 
Ningee minno pimmoossay, 
Kagat minno geeghigud, 
ICwunaudj ningodahs, 
Ke minno iau nuh ? 
Auneende ain deyun ? 
Keezhamonedo aupadushsha- 

wainenik, 
Aupadush Shawaindaugoozze- 

yun, 

Aupadush nau kinwainzh pim- 

maudizziyun, 
Onauneegoozzin, 
Ne miuwaindum waubumaun, 
Kwanaudj Kweeweezains, 
K^gat Songeedaa, 
Kagat onishishsha, 
Gitshee kinozee, 
Uggausau bavvizzi, 
Gitshee sussaigau, 
Bishegaindaugooziwug meeg- 

wunug, 
Ke daukoozzinuh ? 
Monaudud maundun muskeekee, 
Monaudud aindauyun, 
Aindauyaun mitshau, 
Ne mittigwaub onishishsha, 
Ne bikwukon monaududon, 
Ne minwaindaun appaukooz- , 

zegun, 



I have slept well. 

I have eaten a good meal. 

I have walked well, or a good distance; 

It (is) a very pleasant day. 

I have a handsome garment. 

Are you well ? 

What ails you ? 



I God prosper you. 
Good luck attend you. 



May you live long. 

Be (thou) cheerful. 

I (am) glad to see you. ^ 

A pretty boy. 

He (is) a brave man. 

She (is) handsome. 

He (is) very tall. 

She (is) slender. 

He (is) fine dressed. 

They (are) beautiful feathers. 

Are you sick. 

This (is) bad medicine. 

My place of dwelling (is) bad. 

My place of dwelling is largev 

My bow (is) good. 

But my arrows (are) bad. 

I love mild, or mixed, tobacca 



LANGUAGE. 



273 



Kauweekau neezhikay ussa- ) 

> But I never smoke pure tobacco, 
mau ne sugguswaunausee, ) «. 

Monaudud maishkowaugumig, Strong drink (is) bad. 
Keegiihgee baudjeegonaun, It makes us foolish. 

Gitshee Monedo nebee oofee ) mi « • • j 

, ° > 1 he Great Spirit made water, 

ozheton, ) ^ 

Inineewuofdushween ishkada-)„ , 

, ° I, ... u ?But man made whiskey, 
waubo ogeo ozhetonahwaun. ^ 

These expressions are put down promiscuously, embracing verbs and 
flouns as they presented themselves; and without any effort to suppoit the 
opinion — which may, or may not be correct — that the elementary forms 
of the adjectives are most commonly required before verbs and nouns in 
the first and second persons. The English expression is thrown into In- 
dian in the most natural manner, and of course, without always giving 
adjective for adjective, or noun for noun. Thus, God is rendered, not 
" Monedo," but, " Geezha Monedo," Merciful Spirit. Good luck, is ren- 
dered by the compound phrase " Shawaindaugoozzeyun," indicating, in a 
very general sense the influence of kiTidness or benevolence on success iyi 
life. " Songedaa is alone, a brave man; and the word " Kagat," prefixed, 
is an adverb. In the expression "mild tobacco," the adjective is entirely 
dispensed with in the Indian, the sense being sufficiently rendered by the 
compound noun " appaukoozzegun," which always means the Indian 
weed, or smoking mixture. " Ussamau," on the contrary, without the 
adjective, signifies, " pure tobacco." Bikwakon," signifies Jblunt, or 
Jumpy-headed arrows. Assowaun is the barbed arrow. Kwonaudj 
kweeweezains, means, not simply "pretty boy," hnX pretty little boy] and 
there is no mode of using the word boy but in this diminutive form — the 
the woH itself being a derivative, from kewewe, conjugal with the regular 
diminutive in ains. " Onaunegoozzin" embraces the pronoun, verb and 
adjective, be thou cheerful. In the last phrase of the examples, " man," is 
rendered men (inineewug) in the translation, as the term man cannot be 
employed in the general plural sense it conveys in this connection, in the 
original. The word " whiskey," is rendered by the compound phrase 
ishkodawaubo. literally, fine-liquor., a generic for all kinds of ardent 
spirits. 

These aberrations from the literal term, will convey some conceptions 
of the difference of the two idioms, although, from the limited nature and 
object of the examples, they will not indicate the full extent of this differ- 
ence. In giving anythinglike the spirit of the original, much greater de- 
viations, in the written forms, must appear. And in fact, not only the 
structure of the language, but the mode and order of thought of the Indians 
is so essentially different, that any attempts to preserve the English idiom 
— to give letter for letter, and word lor word, must go far to render the 
translation pure nonsense. 

18 



274 



LANGUAGE. 



2. Varied as the adjective is, in its changes it has no comparative in. 
flection. A Chippewa cannot say that one substance is hotter or colder 
than another ; or of two or more substances unequally heated, that this, or 
that is the hottest or coldest, without employing adverbs, or accessory ad- 
iectives. And it is accordingly by adverbs, and accessory adjectives, thai 
the degrees of comparison are expressed. 

Pimraaudizziwin, is a very general substantive expression, in indicating 
ihe tenor of being or life. Izzhewabizzivvin, is a term near akin to it, but 
more appropriately applied to the ads^ conduct^ manner, or personal deport- 
ment of life. Hence the expressions : / 

Nin bimmaudizziwin, My tenor of life. 

Ke bimmaudizziwin, Thy tenor of life. 

O Pimmaudizziwin, His tenor of life, &c. 

Nin dizekewabizziwin, My personal deportment. 

Ke dizhewabizziwin, Thy personal deportment. 

O Izzhewabizzivvin, His personal deportment, &c. 

To form the positive degree of comparison for these terms minno, good, 
and mudjee, bad, are introduced between the pronoun and verb, giving 
rise to some permutations of the vowels and consonants, v^hich affect the 
sound only. Thus : — 

Ne minno pimmaudizziwin. My good tenor of life. 

Ke minno pimmaudizziwin, Thy good tenor of life. 

Minno pimmaudizziwin, His good tenor of life. 

Ne mudjee pimmaudizziwin, My bad tenor of life. 

Ke mudjee pimmaudizziwin, Thy bad tenor of life. 

Mudjee pimmaudizziwin. His bad tenor of life. 

To place these forms in the comparative degree, nahwudj, more^ is pre- 
fixed to the adjective ; and the superlative is denoted by mahmowee^ an ad- 
verb, or an adjective as it is variously applied, but the meaning of which, 
is, in this connexion, most. The degrees of comparison may be therefore 
set down as follows : — 

Pcsitive^ Kisheda, Hot, (restricted to the heat of a fire.) 

Comp. Nahw^udj Kisheda, More hot. 
Super. MahnioAvee Kisheda, Most hot. 

Your manner of life is good, Ke dizzihewabizziwin onishishin. 

\ Ke dizzhewabizziwin nahwudj onis- 
Your manner of life is better, ^ hishin 

{ Ke dizzhewabizziwin mahmowee 
Your manner oi lile is best, < • i,- u- 

' I onishishin. 

r I T • V . ^ Odizzhewabizziwin mahmowee onish- 

His manner oi liie is best, { . . • • 

' f ishinine. 

Litlle Turtle was brave, Mikkenokons songedaabua 



LANGUAGE. 



275 



Tecumseh was braver, Tecumseh nahwidj songedaabun. 

Pontiac was bravest, Pontiac mahmowee songedaabun. 

3. The adjective assumes a negative form when it is preceeded by the 
adverb. Thus the phrase sdngedaa, he is brave, is changed to, Kah- 
ween sdngedaasee, he is not brave. 

Positive, Negative. 

Neebwaukah, Kahween neebwaukah-see, 

Ho is wise. He is not wise. 

Kwonaudjewe, Kahween kwonaudj ewe-see. 

She is handsome, She is not handsome. 

Oskineegee, Kahween oskineegee-see 

He is young. He is not young. 

Shaugvveewee, Kahween Shaugwee wee-see, 

He is feeble. He is not feeble. 

Geekkau, Kahween Geekkau-see, 

He is old. He is not old. 

Mushkowizzi, Kahween Mushkowizzi-see, 

He is strong. He is not strong. 

From this rule the indeclinable adjectives — by which is meant those ad- 
jv<:tives which do not put on the personal and impersonal forms by inflec- 
tioi^, but consist of radically different roots — form exceptions. 

Are you sick? Ke dahkoozzi nuh? 

Y"ou are not sick ! Kahween ke dahkoozzi-see ! 

I am happy. Ne minwaindum. 

I am unhappy. Kahween ne minwuinduz-see 

His manner of life is bad. Mudjee izzhewabizzi. 

His manner of life is not bad. Kahween mudjee a izzhewabizzi-see. 

It is large. ' Mitshau muggud. 

It is not large. Kahween mitshau-seenon. 

In these examples the declinable adjectives are rendered negative in see. 
The indeclinable, remain as simple adjuncts to the verbs, and the latter 
put on the negative form. 

4. In the hints and remarks which have now been furnished respect- 
ing the Chippewa adjective, its powers and inflections have been shown 
to run parallel with those of the substantive, in its separation into animates 
and inanimates, — in having the pronominal inflections, — in taking an in- 
flection for tense — (a topic, which, by the way, has been very cursorily 
passed over,) and in the numerous, modifications to form the compounds. 
This parallelism has also been intimated to hold good with respect to 
number — a subject deeply interesting in itself, as it has its analogy only in 
the ancient languages, and it was therefore deemed best to defer giving ex- 
amples till they could be introduced without abstracting the attention from 
other points of discussion. 



276 



LANGUAGE. 



Minno and mudjee, good and bad, being of the limited number of per- 
sonal adjectives, which modern usage permits being applied, although 
often improperly applied, to inanimate objects, they as well as a few other 
adjectives, form exceptions to the use of number. Whether we say a good 
man or a bad man, good men or bad men, the words minnQ and mudjee, 
remain the same. But all the declinable and coalescing adjectives — adjec- 
tives which join on, and, as it were, melt into the body of the substantive, 
take the usual plural inflections, and are governed by the same rules in 
regard to their use, as the substantive, personal adjectives requiring per- 
sonal plurals, &c. 

Adjectives Animate. 
Singular. 

Onishishewe mishemin, Good apple. 

Kwonaudjewe eekvva, Handsome woman. 

Songedaa inine, Brave man. 

Bishegaindaugoozzi peenasee, Beautiful bird. 
Ozahwizzi ahmo, Yellow bee. 

Plural. 

Onishishewe-wug mishemin-ug. Good apples. 

Kwonaudjewe-wug eekwa-wug, Handsome vi^omen. 

Songedaa-wug inine-wug. Brave men. 

Bishegaindaugoozzi-wug peenasee-wug. Beautiful birds. 
Ozahwizzi-wug ahm-6g, Yellow bees. 

Adjectives Inanimate. 
Singular. 

Onishishin mittig, Good tree. 

Kwonaudj tshemaun. Handsome canoe. 

Monaudud ishkoda, Bad fire. 

Weeshkobun aidetaig. Sweet fruit. 

Plural. 

Onishishin-6n mittig-on. Good trees. 

Kwonaudj ewun-6n tshemaun-un, Handsome canoes. 
Monaudud-6n ishkod-an. Bad fires. 

Weeshkobun-on aidetaig-in, Sweet fruits. 

Peculiar circumstances are supposed to exist, in order to render the 
u-se of the adjective, in this connexion with the noun, necessary and 
proper. But in ordinary instances, as the narration of events, the noun 
would precede the adjective, and oftentimes, particularly where a second 
allusion to objects previously named became necessary, the compound ex- 
pressions would be used. Thus instead of saying the yellow bee, way- 
zahwizzid, would distinctly convey the idea of that insect, had the species 
been before named. Under similar circumstances kainwaukoozzid, agau- 



LANGUAGE. 



277 



sheid songaunemud, mushkowaunemud, would respectively signify, a tall 
tree, a small fly, a strong wind, a hard wind. And these terms would be- 
come plural in^'i^, which, as before mentioned, is a mere modification of 
ig^ one of the five general animate plural inflections of the language. 

Kagat wahwinaudj abbenojeeug, is an expression indicating they are 
very handsome children. Bubbeeweezheewug monetosug, denotes small 
insects. Minno neewugizzi, is good tempered, he is good tempered. 
Mawshininewugizzi, is bad tempered, both having their plural in wug. 
Nin nuneenahwaindum, I am lonesome. Nin nuneenahvvaindaumin, we 
(excluding you) are lonesome. Waweea, is a term generally used to 
express the adjective sense of rov,nd. Kwy, is the scalp. [Weenikwy bis 
scalp.) Hence Weevvukwon, hat ; Wayweewukwonid, a wearer of the 
hat; and its plural Wayeewukwonidjig, wearers of the hats — the usual 
term applied to Europeans, or white men generally. These examples 
go to prove, that under every form in which the adjective can be traced, 
whether in its simplest or most compound state, it is susceptible of number. 

The numerals of the language are converted into adverbs, by the in- 
flection ing.) making one^ once., &c. The unit exists in duplicate. 



Pazhik, One, general Once 
Ingoot, One, numerical unit) °' 



Ingoot, One, numerical unit ' 
Neesh, Two. Neeshing, Twice. 

Niswee, Three. Nissing, Thrice. 

Neewin, Four. Neewing, Four-times. 

Naimun, Five. Nauning, Five-times. 

N'goodwaswa, Six. N'goodwautshing, Six-times. 

Neeshwauswa, Seven. Neeshwautshing, Seven-times. 
Shwauswe, Eight. Shwautshing, Eight-times. 

Shongusswe, Nine. Shongutshing, Nine-times. 

Meetauswee, Ten. Meetaushing, Ten-times. 

These inflections can be carried as high as they can compute numbers. 
They count decimally. After reaching ten, they repeat, ten and one, ten 
and two, &c. to twerity. Twenty is a compound signifying two tens, 
thirty, three tens, &c., a mode which is carried up to one hundred rH good' 
wak. Wak, then becomes the word of denomination, combining with the 
names of the digits, until they reach a thousand, meetausivauk., literally, ^e'>t 
hundred. Here a new compound term is introduced made by prefixing 
twenty to the last denomination, neshtonnah duswak, which doubles the 
last term, thirty triples it, forty quadruples it, &c., till the computation 
reaches to ten thousand, n'goodwak dushing n'goodwak, one hundred 
times one hundred. This is the probable extent of all certain computation. 
The term Gitshee, (g'l'eat,) prefixed to the last denomination, leaves the 
number indefinite. 

There is no form of the numerals corresponding to second, third, fourth, 
&c. They can only further say, nittum first, and ishkwaudj, last. 



LECTURE IV. 



Nature and principles of the pronoun — Its distinction into preformative and subfor 
mative classes — Personal pronouns — The distinction of an inclusive and exclusive form 
in the number of the first person plural — Modifications of the personal pronouns to im- 
ply existence, individuality, possession, ownership, position and other accidents — Declen- 
sion of pronouns to answer the purpose of the auxiliary verbs — Subforraatives, how 
employed, to mark the persons — Relative pronouns considered — Their application to the 
causative verbs — Demonstrative pronouns — their separation into two classes, animates 
and inanimates — Example of their use. 

Pronouns are buried, if we may so say, in the structure of the verb. 
In tracing them back to their primitive forms, through the almost infinite 
variety of modifications which they assume, in connexion with the verb, 
substantive and adjective, it will facilitate analysis, to group them into 
preformative and subformative, which include the pronominal prefixes 
and suffixes, and which admit of the further distinction of separable and 
inseparable. By separable is intended those forms, which have a mean- 
ing by themselves, and are thus distinguished from the inflective and 
subformative pronouns, and pronominal particles significant only, in con- 
nection with another word. 

1. Of the first class, are the personal pronouns Neen (I,) Keen (thou,) 
and Ween or O (he or she.) They are declined to form the plural per 
sons in the following manner : 

I, Neen. We Keen owind (in.) 

We Neen owind (ex.) 

Thou, Keen. Ye Keen owau. 

He or She, Ween or O, They Ween owau. 

Here the plural persons are formed by a numerical inflection of the 
singular. The double plural of the first person, of which both the rule 
and examples have been incidentally given in the remarks on the substan- 
tive, is one of those peculiarities of the language, which may, perhaps, 
serve to aid in a comparison of it, with other dialects, kindred and foreign. 
As a mere conventional agreement, for denoting whether the person ad- 
dressed, be included, or excluded, it may be regarded as an advantage to 
the language. It enables the speaker, by the change of a single conso- 
nant, to make a full and clear discrimination, and relieves the narration 

278 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



279 



from doubts and ambiguity, where doubts and ambiguity would otherwise 
often exist. On the other hand, by accumulating distinctions, it loads the 
memory with grammatical foims, and opens a door for improprieties of 
speech. We are not aware of any inconveniencies in the use of a gene- 
ral plural. But in the Indian it would produce confusion. And it is 
perhaps to that cautious desire of personal discrimination, which is so ap- 
parent in the structure of the language, that we should look for the rea- 
son of the duplicate forms of this word. Once established, however, and 
both the distinction, and the necessity of a constant and strict attention to 
it, are very obvious and striking. How shall he address the Deity ? If 
he say — " Our father who art in heavenj^ the inclusive form of "our" 
makes the Almighty one of the suppliants, or family. If he use the ex- 
clusive form, it throws him out of the family, and may embrace, every liv- 
ing being but the Deity. Yet, neither of these forms can be used well in 
prayer, as they cannot be applied directly to the object addressed. It is 
only when speaking of the Deity, under the name of father, to other per- 
sons, that the inclusive and exclusive forms of the word " our" can be 
used. The dilemma may be obviated, by the use of a compound descrip- 
tive phrase — 6 se mig o yun, signifying — thou who art the fa- 
THEPc OF ALL. Or, Universal father. 

In practice, however, the question is cut short, by those persons who 
have embraced Christianity. It has seemed to them, that by the use of 
either of the foregoing terms, the Deity would be thrown into too remote 
a relation to them, and I have observed, that, in prayer, they invariably ad- 
dress Him, by the term used by children for the father of a family, that is, 
NosA, my father. 

The other personal pronouns undergo some peculiar changes, when 
employed as preformatives before nouns and verbs, which it is important 
to remark. Thus neen, is sometimes rendered ne or wwj, and sometimes 
nim. Keen, is rendered ke or kin. In compound words the mere signs 
of the first and second pronouns, N and K, are employed. The use of 
ween is limited ; and the third person, singular and plural, is generally in- 
dicated by the sign, O. 

The particle suh added to the complete forms of the disjunctive pro- 
nouns, imparts a verbal sense to them ; and appears in this instance, to be 
a succedaneum for the substantive verb. Thus Neen, I, becomes Neensuh, 
it is I. Keen, thou, becomes Keensuh, it is thou, and Ween, he or she, 
Weensuh, it is he or she. This particle may also be added to the plural 
forms. 

Keenowind suh. It is we (in.) 

Neenowind suh. It is Ave (ex.) 

Keenovva suh. It is ye, or you. 

Weenowau suh. It is they. 



2^ INDIAN LANGUAGES. 

If the word aittah be substituted for suh^ a set of adverbial phrases are 
farmed. 

. , T 1 Neen aittah wind, We &c. (ex.) 

Neen aittah, I only. „ • , • , „t . ; [ 

Keen aittah wind, We <fec. (in.) 

Keen aittah, Thou only. Keen aittah wau, You <fcc. 

Ween aittah. He or she only. Ween aittah wau, They &c. 

In like manner nittum first, and ishkwaudj last, give rise to the follow- 
ing arrangement of the pronoun : 

Neen nittum, I first. 

Keen nittum, You or thou first. 

Ween nittum, He or she first. 

Keen nittum ewind, We first, (in.) 

Neen nittum ewind. We first, (ex.) 

Keen nittum ewau, Ye or you first 

Ween nittum ewau. They first. 

iSHKWAUDJ. 

Neen ishkwaudj, I last. 

Keen ishkwaudj, Thou last. 

Ween ishkwandj, H^e or she last. 

Keenowind ishkwaudj, We last (in.) 

Neenowind ishkwaudj, We last (ex.) 

Keenowau ishkwaudj. Ye or you last. 

Weenovvau ishkwaudj. They last. 

The disjunctive forms of the pronoun are also sometimes preserved be» 
fore verbs and adjectives. 

NEEZHIKA. Alone, (an.) 

Neen neezhika, I alone. 

Keen neezhika. Thou alone. 

Ween neezhika. He or she alone. 

Keenowind neezhika, We alone (in.) 

Neenowind neezhika, We alone (ex.) 

Keenowau neezhika, Ye or you alone. 

Weenowau neezhika. They alone. 

To give these expressions a verbal form, the substantive verb, with its 
pronominal modifications, must be superadded. For instance, / am alone, 
&,c.j is thus rendered : 

Neen neezhika nindyau, I am alone, x aumin. 

Keen neezhika keedyau. Thou art alone, x aum. 

Ween neezhika lyau. He or she is alone, &c. x wug. 

In the subjoined examples the noun ow, body, is chanofed to a verb, by 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



281 



the permutation of the vowel, changing ow to auw, which last takes tho 
letter d before it, when the pronoun is prefixed. 

I am a man, Neen nin dauw. 

Thou art a man, Keen ke dauw. 

He is a man. Ween ah weeh. 

We are men, (in.) Ke dauw we min. 

We are men, (ex.) Ne dauw we min. 

Ye are men, Ke dauw min. 

They are men, Weenowau ah weeh wug. 

In the translation of these expressions " man" is used as synonomous 
with person. If the specific term inine^ had been introduced in the origi- 
nal, the meaning thereby conveyed would be, in this particular connexion. 
I am a man with respect to courage &c., in opposition to effeminacy. It 
would not be simply declarative of corporeal existence^ but of existence ill 
a particular state or co?idition. 

In the following phrases, the modified forms, or the signs only^ of the 
pronouns are used : 

N' debaindaun, I own it. 

Ke debaindaun. Thou ownest it. 

O debaindaun, He or she owns it 

N' debaindaun-in. We own it (ex.) 

Ke debaindaun-in. We own it (in.) 

Ke debaindaun-ewau. Ye own it. 

O debaindaun-ewau. They own it. 

These examples are cited as exhibiting the manner in which the pre- 
fixed and preformative pronouns are employed, both in their full and con- 
tracted forms. To denote possession, nouns specifying the things pos- 
sessed, are required ; and, what would not be anticipated, had not full 
examples of this species of declension been given in another place, the 
purposes of distinction are not effected by a simple change of the pronoun, 
as / to mine, &c., but by a subformative inflection of the noun^ which is 
thus made to have a reflective operation upon the pronoun-speaker. It is 
believed that sufficient examples of this rule, in all the modifications of 
inflection, have been given under the head of the substantive. But as the 
substantives employed to elicit these modifications were exclusively specific 
in their meaning, it may be proper here, in further illustration of an im- 
portant principle, to present a generic substantive under their compound 
forms. 

I have selected for this purpose one of the primitives. Ie-au. is the abstract 
term for existing matter. It is in the animate form and declarative. Its inani- 
mate correspondent is ie-ee. These are two important roots. And thry are 



282 



INDIAN LANOrAGES. 



found in combination, in a very great number of derivative words. It will 
be sufficient here, to show their connexion with the pronoun, in the pro- 
duction of a class of terms in very general use. 



Animate Forms. 



Poss. I 
Obj. 

Poss. j 
Obj. 



Singular. 
Nin dye aum. Mine, 



Ke dye aum, 
O dye aum-un, 



Plural. 

Nin dye auminaun, Ours, (ex.) 

Ke dye auminaun, Ours (in.) 

Thine. Ke dye aumewau, Yours. 

His or Hers. O dye aumevvaun, Theirs. 



Inanimate Forms. 
Singular. Plural. 
Nin dye eem, Mine. Nin dye eeminaun, Ours, (ex.) 

Ke dye eeminaun, Ours, (in.) 
Ke dye eem, Thine. Ke dy6 eemewau, Yours. 

O dye eem-un. His or Hers. O dye eemevvaun. Theirs. Poss. in. 



In these forms the nonn is singular throughout. To render it plural, 
as well as the pronoun, the appropriate general plurals ug and un or ig 
and ia. must be superadded. But it must be borne in mind, in making 
these ai litioris, -'that the plural mflection to inanimate nouns (which have 
no objective case.) forms the objective case to animates, which have no 
number in the third person," fp 30.] The particle U7t., therefore, which 
is the appropriate plural for the inanimate nouns in these examples, is only 
the objective mark of the animate. 

The plural of I, is naun^ the plural of thou and he, ivau. But as these 
inflections would not coalesce smoothly with the possessive inflections, the 
connective vowels i. and e. are prefixed, making the plural of I, inaun, 
and of thou, &c. eicau. 

If we strike from these declensions the root ie, leaving its animate and 
inani'nale forms at, and kk, and adding the plural of the noun, we shall 
then, — taking the anivi'ite declension as an instance, have the following 
formula of the pronominal declensions. 





Pron. 
Sing. 


P.ar-p of rlie 
Nouu. 


Po;ess've 
inflection 


Obj. in!:]ec. 

to the 
noun singf. 


Connect, 
vowel. 


P.u. inflec. 

of the 
pronorin. 


Obj. 
inflec. 
n.plu. 


Piiiral 
of the 
Noun. 


Ne 
Ke 




aum 
aum 




- i - 

- e - 


- naim 

- wau 




- 'g-- 

— ST- 






= 












aum 


un 










o 




num 




-e- 


- wau 













To render this formula of general use, six variations, (five in addition 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



28a 



to the above) of the possessive inflection, are required, corresponding to 
the six classes of substantives, whereby aum would be changed to am, 
eem, im, 6m, and oom, conformably to the examples heretofore given in 
treating of the substantive. The objective inflection, would also be some- 
times changed to eeti and sometimes to oaji. 

Having thus indicated the mode of distinguishing the person, number, 
relation, and gender — or what is deemed its technical equivalent, the mu- 
tation words undergo, not to mark the di>tinctions of sex^ but the presence 
or absence of vitality, I shall now advert to the inflections which the pro- 
nouns take for tense, or rather, to form the auxiliary verbs, have, had, 
shall, will, may, &c. A very curious and important principle, and one, 
which clearly demonstrates that no part of speech has escaped the trans- 
forming genius of the language. Not only are the three great modi- 
fications of time accurately marked in the verbal forms of the Chippe- 
was, but by the inflection of the pronoun they are enabled to indicate 
some of the oblique tenses, and thereby to conjugate their verbs with ac- 
curacy and precision. 

The paiticle gee added to the first, second, and third persons singular of 
the present tense, changes them to the perfect past, rendering I, thou. He,. 
I did — have — or had. Thou didst, — hast — or hadst, He, or she did— 
have, or had. If gah, be substituted for gee, the first future tense is 
formed, and the perfect past added to the first future, forms the conditional 
future. As the eye may prove an auxiliary in the comprehension of 
forms, which are not familiar, the following tabular arrangement of them, 
is presented. 

First Person, I. 
Nin gee, I did — have — had. 

Nin gah, I shall — will. 

Nin gah gee, I shall have — will have. 

Second Person, Thou. 
Ke gee. Thou didst — hast — hadst. 

Ke gah, Thou shalt — wilt. 

Ke gah gee, Thou shalt have— wilt have. 

Third Person, He, or She. 
O gee, He or she did — has — had. 

O gah. He or she did — has — had. 

O gah gee. He or she shall have — will have. 

The present and imperfect tense of the potential mood, is formed by 
dau, and the perfect by gee, suffixed as in other instances. 

First Person, I. 
Nin dau, I may — car, &c. 

Nin dau gee, I may have — can have, &c. 



284 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



Second Person. Thou. 
Ke dau, Thou mayst — canst, <fec. 

Ke dau gee, Thou mayst have — canst have, &c. 

Third Person^ He., or She. 
O dau, He or she may — can, &c. 

O'dau gee, He or she may have — can have, &c. 

In conjujrating the verbs through the phiral persons, the singular 
terms for the pronoun remain, and they are rendered plural by a retro- 
spective action of the pronominal inflections of the verb. In this manner 
the pronoun-verb auxiliary, has a general application, and the necessity 
of double forms is avoided. 

The preceding observations are confined to the formative or prejized 
pronouns. The inseparable suffixed or subformative are as follows — . 

Yaun, My. 

Yun, Thy. , 

Id, or d, His, or hers. 

Yaung, Our. (ex.) 

Yung, , Our. (in.) 

Yaig, Your. 

Waud, Their. 

These pronouns are exclusively employed as suffixes, — and as suffixes 
to the descriptive compound substantives, adjnctives and verbs. Both 
the rule and examples h:ive bi^en stated under the head of the substantive, 
p. 43. and adjective, p. 81. Their application to the verb will be shown, 
as we proceed. 

2. Relitive Pronouns. In a language which provides for the distinc* 
tions of person by particles prefixed or suffixed to the verb, it will 
scarcely be expected, that separate and independent relative pronouns 
should exist, or if such are to be found, their use, as separate parts of 
speech, must, it will have been anticipated, be quite limited — limited to 
simple interrosf itory forms of expression, and not applicable to the indica- 
tive, or declaratory. Such will be found to be the fi»-t in the language 
under review ; and it will be perceived, from the puhjoined examples, that 
in hII inst inces. requi; ing thf^ relntive pronoun lohCi othpr than the simple 
interrogratoi y forms, this rehnion is indicated by the inflections of the verb, 
or adjective. S:c. Nor does there appear to be any declension of the sep- 
arate pronoun, (.orresponding to luhose, and whom. 

The word .Ahwavnain. m:iy be said to be uniformly employed in the 
Sense of w)o. under the limitations we have mentioned. For instance. 
Who is t'lere? Ahwaynain e-raab ai-auu ? 

Whospok-e? Ahwaynain kau keegce loo 1 ? 

Who tcld vou 1 Ahwaynain kau ween dumoak? 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



2m 



Who are you ? Ahwaynain iau we yiin ? 

Who sent you? Ahwaynain waynonik? 

Who is your father? Ahwaynain kos? 
Who did it? Ahwaynain kau todung? 

Whose dog is it? Ahwaynain way dyid? 

Whose pipe is that? Ahwaynain dopwaugunid en-eu? 
Whose lodge is it? Ahwaynain way weegewomid ? 

" Whom do you seek? Ahwaynain nain dau wau bumud ? 
Whom have you here? Ahwaynain oh omau ai auwaud? 
. Not the slightest variation is made in these phrases, between who, whose, 
sivdl whom. 

Should we wish to change the interrogative, and to say, he who is there ; 
h'^ who spoke ; he who told you, &c., the separable personal pronoun ween 
(he) must be used in lieu of the relative, and the following forms will be 
elicited. 

Ween, kau unnonik, He (who) sent you. 

Ween, kau geedood, He (who) spoke. 

Ween, ai-aud e-mah, He (who) is there. 

Ween, kau weendumoak, He (who) told you. 

Ween, kau to dung, He (who) did it, &c. 

If we object that, that in these forms, there is no longer the relative pro- 
noun who, the sense being simply, he sent you, he spoke, &c., it is replied 
that if it be intended only to say, he sent you, &c., and not he who sen! 
you, &c., the following forms are used. 

Ke gee unnonig. He (sent) you. 

Ainnozhid, He (sent) me. 

Ainnonaud, He (sent) him, &c. 

Iau e-mau. He is there. 

Ke geedo. He (spoke.) 

Kegeeweendumaug, He (told) you. 

Ke to dum, He did it. 

We reply, to this answer of the native speaker, that the particle kau 
prefixed to a verb denotes the past tense, — that in the former series of terms, 
in which this particle appears, the verbs are in the perfect indicative, — 
and in the latter, they are in the present indicative, marking the di^ 
ference only between .fe/U and send, spoke and speak, he. And that there 
is absolutely no relative pronoun, in either series of terms. We further 
observe, that the personal pronoun ween, prefixed to the first set of terms, 
may be prefixed with equal propriety, to the second set, and that its use 
or disuse, is perfectly optional with the speaker, as he may wish to give 
additional energy or emphasis to the expression. To these positions, 
after reflection, discussion and examination, we receive an assent, and thus 
the uncertainly is terminated. 



286 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



sons are made happy, and, in like manner, the suffixed personal pronouns 
plural^ mark the distinctions between we, ye, they, &c. For it is a rule 
of the language, that a strict concordance must exist between the number 
of the verb, and the number of the pronoun. The termination of the verb 
consequently always indicates, whether there be one or many objects, to 
which its energy is directed. And as animate verbs can be applied only 
to animate objects, the numerical inflections of the verb, are understood to 
mark the number of persons. But this number is indiscriminate, and 
leaves the sense vague, until the pronominal suffixes are superadded. 
Those who, therefore, contend for the sense of the relative pronoun 
"who," being given in the last mentioned phrase, and all phrases similarly 
formed, by a succedaneum, contend for something like the following form 
of translation : — He makes them happy — him! or Him — he (meaning 
who) makes them happy. 

The equivalent for what, is Wai/go7iai?i. 

What do you want? Waygonain wau iauyun ? 

What have you lost? Waygonain kau wonetoyun ? 

What do you look for? Waygonain nain dahwaubundamun ? 
What is this ? Waygonain ewinain maundun ? 

What will you have? Waygonain kau iauyun ? 

What detained you? Waygonain kau oon dahme egOyun? 

What are you making? Waygonain wayzhetoyun? 
What have you there? Waygonain e-mau iauyun ? 

The use of this pronoun, like the preceding, appears to be confined to 
simple interrogative forms. The word auneen, which sometimes supplies 
its place, or is used for want of the pronoun which, is an adverb, and has 
considerable latitude of meaning. Most commonly it may be considered 
as the equivalent for how, in what manner, or at what time. 
What do you say? Auneen akeedoyun ? 

What do you call this? Auneen aizheneekaudahmun maun- 

dun? (i.) 

What ails you ? Auneen aindeeyun ? 

What is your name? Auneen aizheekauzoyun? 

Which do you mean; this or that? (an.) Auneen ah-owainud,woh-owgamau 

ewidde ? 

Which do you mean ; this or that? (in.) Auneen eh eu ewaidumun oh-oo 

gamai^ ewaidde? • 
Which boy do you mean ? Auneen ah ow-ainud ? 

By adding to this word, the particle de, it is converted into an adverb of 
place, and may be rendered lohere. 

Where do you dwell? Auneende aindauyun? 

Where is your son ? Auneende ke gwiss ? 

Where did you see him? Auneende ke waubumud? 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



287 



We now wish to apply the principle thus elicited to verbs causative, and 
other compound terms — to the adjective verbs, for instance — and to the 
other verbal compound expressions, in which the objective and the nomi- 
native persons, are incorporated as a part of the verb, and are not prefixes 
to it. This may be shown in the causative verb. To make Happy. 

Mainwaindumeid, He (who) makes me happy. 

Mainwaindumeik, He (who) makes thee happy. 

Mainwaindumeaud, He (who) makes him happy. 

Mainwaindumeinung, He (who) makes us happy, (inclusive.) 

M'^inwaindumeyaug-, He (who) makes us happy, (exclusive.) 

Mainwaindumeinnaig, He (who) makes ye or you happy. 

Mainwaindumeigowaud, He (who) makes Mm happy. 
And so the forms might be continued, throughout all the objective 
persons. — 

Mainwaindumeyun, Thou (who) makest me happy, &c. 

The basis of these compounds is minuo, good, and aindum, the mind. 
Hence minwaindum, he happ3^ The adjective in this connexion, can- 
not be translated "good," but its effect upon the noun, is to denote that 
state of the mind, which is at rest with itself The first change from this 
simple compound, is to give the adjective a verbal form ; and this is 
effected by a permutation of the vowels of the first syllable — a rule of very 
extensive application — and by v/hich, in the present instance, the phrase 
he happy, is changed to he makes happy, (mainwaindum.) The next step 
IS to add the suffix personal pronouns, id, ik, aud, &c., rendering the ex- 
pressions, he makes me happy, &c. But in adding these increments, the 
vowel e, is thrown between the adjective-verb, and the pronoun suffixed, 
making the expression, not mainwaindum-yun, but mainwaindumeyun. 
Generally the vowel e in this situation, is a connective, or introduced 
merely for the sake of euphony. And those who maintain that it is here 
employed as a personal pronoun, and that the relative who, is implied by 
the final inflection ; overlook the inevitable inference, that if the marked 
e, stands for me in the first phrase, it must stand for thee in the second, he 
in the third, us in the fourth, &c. As to the meaning and office of the 
final mflections id, ik, &c. — whatever they may, in an involuted sense 
imply, it is quite clear, by turning to the list of suffixed personal pronouns 
and animate plurals^ that they mark the persons, 1, thou, he, &c., we, ye, 
they, &c. 

Take for example, minwraindumeigowaud. He (who) makes them 
happy. Of this compound, minwaindum, as before shown, sigv ifies he 
makes happy. But as the verb is in the singular number, it implies that 
but one person is made happy, and the suffixed personal pronouns singular^ 
mark the distinctions between me, thee, and he, or him. 

Minwaindum-e-ig is the vero plural, and implies that several per- 



288 



INDIAN LANGUAGES. 



becomes quite necessary in writing the language. And in the following 
sentences, the substantive is properly employed after the pronoun. 



This dog is very lean, 
These dogs are very lean. 

Those dogs are fat, 
That dog is fat, 
This is a handsome knife, 
These are handsome knives. 
Those are bad knives, 
Give me that spear, 
Give me those spears, 
That is a fine boy, 
Those are fine boys, 

This boy is larger than that, 

That is what I wanted, 



Gitshee bukaukdoozo woh-ow annemoosh. 
Gitshee bukauddoozowug o-goo annem- 
oosh ug. 

Ig-eu annemooshug ween-in-oawug. 
Ah-ow annemoosh ween-in-ao. 
Gagait onishishin maundun mokomahn. 
Gagait wahwinaudj o-noo mokomahnun. 
Monaududon in-euwaidde mokomahnun. 
Meezhishin eh-eu ahnitt. 
Meezhishin in-eu unnewaidde ahnitteen. 
Gagait kwonaudj ah-ow kweewezains. 
Gagait wahwinaudj ig-euwaidde kwee- 

wezainsug. 
Nahwudj raindiddo woh-ow kweewezains 

ewaidde dush. 
Meeh-eu wau iauyaumbaun. 
This is the very thing I wanted, Mee-suh oh-oo wau iauyaumbaun. 

In some of these expressions, the pronoun combines with an adjective, 
as in the compound words, ineuwaidde, and igeuwaidde, those yotider^ (in.) 
and those yonder (an.) Compounds which exhibit the full pronoun in co- 
alescence with the word Ewaidde yonder. 



CHRONOLOGY. 

Columbus discovered the West Indies Oct. 12, 1492. 
Americo Vespucio, discovered the coast of South America, 1497. 
Cabot discovered the North American coast 1497. 
De Leon discovered Florida 1512. 

Cortes, enters the city of Mexico, after a seige, Aug, 13, 1521. 
Verrizani, is said to have entered the bay of New York, 1524. 
Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence, 1534. 
Jamestown, in Virginia, is founded, 1608. 
Acknowledged date of the settlement of Canada, IG08. 
Hudson discovers the river bearing his name, 16uJ. 
The Dutch build a fort near Albany, 1614. 
The Pilgrims land at Plymouth Dec. 22, 1620. 

New Amsterdam taken from the Dutch by the Duke of York and Albany 

and named New York 1664. 
La Salle discovers the Illinois in upper Louisaina 1678. 

discovers Lower Louisiana, and is killed 1685. 



THE ERA OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH IN 
THE UPPER LAKES. 



Ke-wa-kons, a chief of the straits of St. Mary's, told me, during- an in- 
terview, in 1327, that but seven generations of red men had passed away, 
since the French first appeared on those straits. If we take the date of 
Cartier's first visit to the St. Lawrence, as the era of their acquaintance 
with this nation, A. D. 1534, wo should have 56 years as the period of an 
Indian generation. Should we take, instead of this, the time of La Salle's 
first arrival on the upper lakes, 1778, there would, on the contrary, be but 
a fraction over 22 years for a generation. But neither of these periods, 
can be truly said to coincide with the probable era of the chief's historical 
reminiscences. The first is too early, the last too late. An average of 
the two, which is required to apply the observation properly, gives 38 
years as the Indian generation. , This nearly assimilates it to the results 
among Europeans, leaving 8 years excess. Further data would probably 
reduce this ; but it is a department in which we have so little material, 
that we must leave it till these be accumulated. It may be supposed that 
the period of Indian longevity, before the introduction of ardent spirits, 
was equal, perhaps, a little superior, to that of the European ; but it did 
not exceed it^ we think, by 8 years. 

Ke-wa kons, v/hom I knew very well, was a man of shrewd sense, and 
respectable pov/irs of observation. He stated, at the same interview, that 
his tribe, who were of the Odjibwa type of the Algonquins, laid aside their 
Akeeks, or clay cooking- vessels, at that time, and adopted in lieu of them, 
the light brass kettle, which was more portable and permanent. And 
from that time, their skill in pottery declined, until, in our day, it is en- 
tirely lost. It is curious to reflect, that within the brief period of 150 
years, a living branch of coarse manufacture among them, has thus been 
transferred into an object of antiquarian research. This fact, should make 
historians cautious in assigning very remote periods of antiquity to the 
monumental evidences of by-gone generations. 

It is by such considerations that we get a glimpse of some of the gene- 
ral principles which attended the early periods of discovery and settlement, 
in all parts of the continent. Adventurers came to find gold, or furs, to amass 
wealth, get power, or to perform mere exploits. Nobody cared much for 
the native race, beyond the fact of their being the medium to lead to these 



29U 



FLIGHT OF THE SHAWNEES. 



specified objects. There were none, fo record accurately, their arts, and 
other peculiarities, which now excite intense interest. They died away 
very fi^^t, whole tribes becoming extinct within a generation or two. The 
European fabrics, then introduced, were so much superior to their own, 
that they, at once, discontinued such rude arts as they practised, at least in 
our no thern btituvles. New adventurers followed in the track of Colum- 
bus, Amerigo, Cabot, and their compeers and followers, who, in the lapse 
of time, picked up, from thi* soil, pieces of coarse pottery, pestle-s and such 
like things, and holding them up, sai l, — "See these! — here are evidences 
of very greiit skill, and very high antiquity." 

It is not the intention by any means, to assert, that there were not anti- 
quities of a far higher era, and nobler caste, but merely to impress upon in- 
quirers, the necessity of discriminating the different eras in the chronology 
of our antiquities. All Indian pottery, north of the capes of Florida and 
the Gulf of Mexico, is of, or preceding the era of the discovery ; but there 
is found in graves, a species of pottery, and vitrified ware, which was in- 
troduced, in the early stages of traffic, by Europeans. Of this transition 
era b -tween the dying away of the Indian arts, and the introduction of the 
European, are the rude pistes, enamel and glass beads, and short clay 
pipes of coirse texture, found in Indian cemeteries, but not in the tumuli. 
In place of these, our ancient Indians used wrought and unvvrought sea 
shells of various species, and pipes carved out of seatites and other soft 
materials. 



Mr. Anderson remarks in his biography of Catharine Brown, that 
."the Cherokees are said to possess a language, which is more precise and 
powerful than any into which learning has poured richness of thought, or 
genius breathed the enchantments of fancy and eloquence." 

David Brown, in one of his letters, in the same volume, terms his peo- 
ple the Tsallakee, of which we must therefore take "Cherokee," to be a 
corruption. It is seen by the Cherokee alphabet, that the sound of r does 
not occur in that language. 

FAITH. 

When Chusco was converted to Christianity at the mission of Michi- 
linackinac, he had planted a field of potatoes on one of the neighbouring 
islands in lake Huron. In the fall he went over in his canoe, with his 
aged wife, to dig them — a labour which the old woman set unceremoni- 
ously nbout, as soon as they got into the field. " Stop !" cried the little old 
man, who had a small tenor voice and was bent nearly double by age, — 
"dare y^u begin to dig, till we have thanked the Lord for their growth." 
They then both knelt down in the field, while he lifted up his voice, in 
his native language, in thanks. 



SHINGABA-WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES. 



The aative tribes who occupy the borders of the great lakes, are very 
ingenious in converting to the uses of superstition, such masses of loose 
rock, or boulder stones, as have been fretted by the action of water into 
shapes resembling the trunks of human bodies, or other organic forms. 

There appears, at all times, to have been a ready disposition to turn 
such masses of rude natural sculpture, so to call them, to an idolatrous 
use ; as well as a most ingenious tact, in aiding the effect of the natural 
resemblance, by dots or dabs of paint, to denote eyes, and other features, 
or by rings of red ochre, around their circumference, by way of orna- 
ment. 

In the following figures, 1, 2. 3, 4, 5, some of these masses are repre- 

sevAed. 




Number 3. was brought to the oOice of the Indian Agent at Micbili- 
mackinac in 1839, and placed among objects of analagous interest to 
visiters. It consisted of a portion of a vein or mass of gneiss or granite, 
from which both mica and feldspar were nearly absent, existing only in 
trace, while the quartzy portion predom.inated, and had, by its superior 
hardness, resisted the elemental action. The mode of the formation of such 
masies is very well known to geologists, resulting, in almost every case, 
from the unequal degree of hardness of various parts of a mass, sub- 
mitted to an equal force of attrition, such as is ordinarily given by the 
upheaving and rolling force of weaves on a lake, or ocean beach. To the 
natives, who are not pione to reason from cause toefTect, such productions 
appear wonderful. All that is past comprehension, or wonderful, is 
iUrihuted by them to the supernatural agency of spirits. The hunter or 

291 



292 



SHINGABA WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES. 



warrior, who is travelling along the coast, and finds one of these self- 
sculptured stones, is not sure that it is not a direct interposition of his 
God, or guardian Manito, in his favour. He is habitually a believer in 
the most subtle forms of mysteiious power, which he acknowledges to be 
often delegated to the native priests, or necromancers. He is not stag- 
gered by the most extraordinary stretch of fancy, in the theory of the 
change or transformation of animate into inanimate oljects, and vice 
versa. All things, " in heaven and earth," he believes to be subject to 
this subtle power of metamorphosis. But, whatever be the piecise ope- 
rating cause of the respect he pays to the imitative rolled stones, which 
he calls Shingaba-wossins. and also by the general phrase of iMiiz-in-in- 
a-wun, or images, he is not at liberty to pass them without hazarding 
something, in his opinion, of his chance of success in life, or the foitune 
of the enlerprize in hand. 

If the image be small, it is generally taken with him and secreted in 
the neighborhood of his lodge. If large and too heavy for this purpose, 
it is set up on the shore, generally in some obscure nook, where an offer- 
ing of tobacco, or something else of less value, may be made to it, or 
rather through it, to the spirit. 

In 182U one of these stones (No. 2.) was met by an expedition of the 
government sent north, that year, for the purpose of interior discovery 
and observation, at theinnerThunder Bay island, in Lake Huron. It was 
a massy stone, rounded, with a comparatively broad base and entablature 
but not otherwise remarkable. It was set up, under a tree on the island, 
which was small,^ with the wide and clear expanse of the lake in plain 
view. The island was one of those which were regarded as desert, and 
was probably but seldom stopped at. It was, indeed, little more than a few 
acres of boulJers and pebbles, accumulated on a limestone reef, and bear- 
ing a few stunted trees and shrubs. The water of the lake must, in high 
storms, have thrown its spray over this imaged stone. It was, in fine, one 
of those private places which an Indian might be supposed to have se- 
lected for his secret worship. 

In No. 3. is figured an object of this kind, which was found in 1832, 
in the final ascent to the source of the Mississippi, on the right cape, in 
ascending this stream into lac Traverse — at the distance of about 1000 
miles above the falls olF St. Anthony. 1 landed at the point to see it, hav- 
ing heard, from my interpreter, that such an object was set up and dedi- 
cated to some unknown Manito there. It was a pleasant level point of 
land shaded with trees, and bearing luxuriant grass and wild shrubbery 
and flowers. In the middle of this natural parterre the stone was placed, 
and was overtopped by this growth, and thus concealed by it. A ring of 
red paint encircled it, at the first narrowed point of its circumference, to 
give it the resemblance of a human neck ; and there were some rude 
dabs to denote other features. The Indian is not precise in the matter of 



SHINGABA WOSSINS, OR IMAGE STONES. 



2m 



proportion, either in his drawing, or in his attempts at statuary. He seizes 
upon some minute and characteristic trait, which is at once sufficient to de- 
note the species, and he is easily satisfied about the rest. Thus a simple 
cross, with a strait line fiom shoulder to shoulder, and a dot, or circle 
above, to serve for a head, is the symbol of the human frame ; and without 
any adjunct of feet, or hands, it could not have been mistaken for any 
thing else — certainly for any other object in the animal creation. 



MNEMONIC SYMBOLS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRELtMINARY REMARKS. SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATIONS AND HIEROGLYPHICS, ONE OF THK 

EARLIEST OBSERVED TRAITS IN THE CUSTOMS AND ARTS OF THE AMERICAN ABORI- 
GINES ; BUT THIS ART NOT SUSPECTED TO HAVE A SYSTEMATIC FORM AMONG THE RUDE 
HUNTER TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA, UNTIL THE YEAR 1820, WHEN IT WAS DIS- 
COVERED ON THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPL THIS INSTANCE GIVEN, WITH A DRAW- 
ING : THE HINT PURSUED. 

The practice of the North American tribes, of drawing figures and 
pictures on skins, trees, and various other substances, has been noticed 
by travellers and writers from the earliest times. Among the more north- 
erly tribes, these figures are often observed on that common substitute for 
the ancient papyrus, among these nations, the bark of the hetula 'pafyracea,^ 
or white birch: a substance possessing a smooth surface, easily impressed, 
very flexible, and capable of being preserved in rolls. Often these devi- 
ces are cut, or drawn in colours on the trunks of trees, more rarely on 
rocks or boulders. According to Golden and Lafitou records of this rude 
character were formerly to be seen on the blazed surface of trees, along some 
of the ancient paths and portages leading from the sources of the Atlan- 
tic rivers into the interior, or in the valley of the St. Lawrence ; but 
these, after satisfying a transient curiosity, have long since yielded to the 
general fate of these simple and unenduring monuments. Pictures and 
symbols of this kind are now to be found only on the unreclaimed bor- 
ders of the great area west of the Alleghanies and the Lakes, in the 
wide piaiiies of tlie west, or along the Missouri and the upper Missis- 
sippi. It is known thut such devices were in use, to some extent, at the era 
of the discoveiy, among most of the ti ibes, situated between the latitudes 
of the c.ipes of Florida, and Hudson's Bay, akhough they have been 
considered as more paiticularly characteristic of the tribes of the Algon- 
quin typp. In a few inst inces, these pictorial inscriptions have been found 
to be p.iinted or stained on the faces of rocks, or on loose boulders, and 
still rnoie rarely, devices vveie scratched or pecked into the surface, as is 
found to be the case stiil at Dighton uiid Vteuuii^w. Those who are intent 



294 



ART OF PICTURE "WRITING. 



on observations of this kind, will find figures and rude hieroglyphics m 
variably at the present time, on the grave posts which mark the places 
of Indian sepulchre at the west and north. The nations who rove over 
the western prairies, inscribe them on the skins of the bufialo. North of 
latitude 42^^, the bark of the birch, which furnishes at once the mate- 
rial of canoes, tents, boxes, water-dippers, and paper, constitutes the com- 
mon medium of their exhibition. Tablets of hard wood are confined to 
such devices as are employed by their priests and prophets, and medicine-, 
men ; and these characters uniformly assume a more mystical or sacred 
import. But the recent discovery, on one of the tributaries of the Sus- 
quehanna, of an Indian map, drawn on stone, with intermixed devices, a 
I copy of which appears in the 1st volume of the collections of the Histor- 
I ical Committee of the American Philosophical Society, proves that stone 
i was also employed in that branch of inscription. This discovery was on 
the area occupied by the Lenapees. 

Colden„ in Jiis history of the Five Nations, * informs us that when, in 
1696, the Count de Frontenac marched a well appointed army into the 
Iroquois country, with artillery and all other means of regular military 
offence, he found, on the banks of the Onondaga, now called Oswego 
river, a tree, on the trunk of which the Indians had depicted the French 
army, and deposited two bundles of cut rushes at its foot, consisting of 
1434 pieces — an act of defiance on their part, which was intended to in- 
form their invaders, that they would have to encounter this number of 
warriors. In speaking in another passage of the general traits of the 
Five Nations, he mentions the general custom prevalent among the Mo- 
hawks going to war, of painting, with red paint, on the trunk of a tree, 
such symbols^ as might serve to denote the object of their expedition. 
Among the devices was a canoe pointed towards the enemies' country. 
On their return, it was their practice to visit the same tree, or precinct, 
and denote the result : the canoe being, in this case, drawn with 
its bows in the opposite direction. Lafitou, in his account of the nations 
of Canada, makes observations on this subject to which we shall more 
particularly refer hereafter, which denote the general prevalence of the 
custom in that quarter. Other writers, dating as far back as Smith and 
de Bre, bear a passing testimony to the existence of this trait among the 
northern tribes. Few have however done more than notice it, and none 
are known to have furnished any amount of connected details. 

A single element in the system attracted early notice. I allude to the 
institution of the Totem, which has been well known among the Al- 
gonquin tribes from the settlement of Canada. By this device, the early 
missionaries observed, that the natives marked their division of a tribe 
into clans, and of a clan into families, and the distinction was thus very 
clearly preserved. Affinities were denoted and kept up, long after tradi- 
• London, 1747, p. 190. 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



2m 



tion had fa. led in its testimony. This distinction, which is marked with 
much of the certainty of heraldic bearings in the feudal system, was seen 
to mark the arms, the lodge, and the trophies of the chief and warrior. 
It was likewise employed to give identity to the clan of which he was a 
member, on his ad-je-da-teg or grave-post. This record went but little 
farther ; a few strokes or geometric devices were drawn on these simple 
monuments, to denote the number of men he had slain in battle. 

It has not been suspected in any notices to which I have had access, 
that there was a pictorial alphabet, or a series of homophonous figures, in 
which, by the juxtaposition of symbols representing acts, as well as objects 
of action, and by the introduction of simple adjunct signs, a series of dis- 
junctive, yet generally connected ideas, were denoted ; or that the most prom- 
inent incidents of life and death could be recorded so as to be transmitted 
from one generation to another, as long at least as the monument and the 
people endured. Above all, it was not anticipated that there should have 
been found, as will be observed in the subsequent details, a system of sym- 
bolic notition for the songs and incantations of the Indian metas and 
priests, making an appeal to the memory for the preservation of language. 

Persons familiar with the stnte of the western tribes of this continent, 
particulaily in the higher northern latitudes, have long been aware that 
the songs of the Indian priesthood, and wabenoes, were sung from a kind 
of pictori.il notation, made on bark. It is a flict which has often come to 
the observation of niilitary officers performing duties on those frontiers, 
and of persons exercising occasional duties m civil life, who have passed 
through their territories. But there is no class of persons to wh<pm the 
fact of such flotations being made, is so well known, as the class of Indian 
traders and interpreters who visit or reside a part of the season at the 
Indian villao-es. I have never conversed with any of this latter class of 
persons to whom the fict of sucli inscriptions, made in various ways, was 
not so familiar as in their view to excite no surprise or even demand re- 
mark. 

My attention was first called to ttie subject in 1820. In the summer 
of that vpar I was on an exploring- journey through the lake country. At 
the mourh of the small river Huron, on the banks of Lake Superior, 
/hptp wns an Indian orave fenced around with saplings, and protected 
with much care. At its head stool a post, or tabular stick, upon which 
jvns dnwn the figure of the animal which was the symbol of the clan to 
wh\rh th» deceased chief hplonsred. Strokes of red paint were added ta 
lenotp. ei'her the number of war parties in which he had been engaged, 
Dr the nnmber of scalps which he had actually taken from the enemy. 
The interpreter who accompanied us. and who was himself tinctured with 
In \ hn blon 1, o-nve the litter, as the true import of these marks. 

(hi fi'iittinc" the river St. Louis, which flows into the head of the lake 
at the FoiiJ du Lac, to cross the summit dividing its waters from those of 



296 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



the Mississippi, the way led through heavy and dense woods and swamps, 
and the weather proved dark and rainy, so that, for a couple cf days ta 
gether. we had scarcely a glimpse of the sun. 

The party consisted of sixteen persons, with two Indian guides ; but 
the latter, with all their adroitness in threading the maze, were completely at 
fault for nearly an entire day. At night we lay down on ground elevated 
but a few inches above the level of the swamp. The next morning as 
we prepared to leave the camp, a small sheet of birch bark containing de- 
vices was observed elevated on the top of a sapling, some 8 or 10 feet 
high. One end of this pole was thrust firmly into the ground leaning in 
the direction we were to go. On going up to this object, it was found', 
with the aid of the interpreter, to be a symbolic record of the circum- 
stances of our crossing this summit, and of the night's encampment at this 
spot. Each person was appropriately depicted, distinguishing the soldiers 
from the officer in command, and the latter from the scavans of the party. 
The Indians themselves were depicted without hats, this being, as we no- 
ticed; the general symbol for a white man or European. The entire 
record, of which a figure is annexed, accurate^ symbolized the circum- 
stances, and they were so clearly drawn, according to their conventional 
rules, that the intelligence would be communicated thereby to any of theix 
people who might chance to travel or wander this way. This was tho i 
object of the inscription. | 




Fig. No. 1. represents the subaltern oiRcer in command of tne ipartj 

of the U. R. troops. He is drawn with a sword to denote his official 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



297 



rank. No. 2 denotes the person who officiated in quality of Secretary. 
He is represented holding a book. No. 3 denotes the geologist and min- 
eralogist of the party. He is drawn with a hammer. Nos. 4 and 5 are 
attaches ; No. 6, the interpreter. 

The group of figures marked 9 represents eight mfantry soldiers, each 
of whom, ay shown in group No. 10, was armed with a musket. No. 15 
denotes that they had a separate fire, and constituted a separate mess. 
Figures 7 and 8 are the two Chippewa guides, the principal of whom, 
called Chamees, or the Pouncing-hawk, led the way over this dreary sum- 
mit. These are the only human figures on this unique bark letter, who 
are drawn without a hat. This was the characteristic seized on, by them, 
and generally employed by the tribes, to distinguish the Red from the white 
race. Figures 1 1 and 12 represent a prairie hen, and a green tortoise, 
which constituted the sum of the preceding day's chase, and were eaten 
at the encampment. The inclination of the pole, was designed to show 
the course pursued from that particular spot : there were three hacks in 
it, below the scroll of bark, to indicate the estimated length of this part 
of the journey, computing from water to water, that is to say, from the 
head of the portage Aux Couteaux on the St. Louis river, to the open shores 
of Sandy lake, the Ka-ma-ton-go-gom-ag of the Odjibwas. 

The story was thus briefly and simply told ; and this memorial was 
set up by the guides, to advertise any of their countrymen, who might 
chance to wander in that direction, of the adventure — for it was evident, 
both from this token, and from the dubiousness which had marked the 
prior day's wanderings, that they regarded the passage in this light, and 
were willing to take some credit for the successful execution of it. 

Before we had penetrated quite to this summit, we came to another 
evidence of their skill in this species of knowledge, consisting of one of 
those contrivances which they denominate Man-i-to-wa-teg, or Manito 
Poles. On reaching this our guides shouted, whether from a supersti- 
tious impulse, or the joy of having found a spot they certainly could rec- 
ognize, we could not tell. We judged the latter. It consisted of eight 
poles, of equal length, shaved smooth and round, painted with yellow 
ochre, and set so as to enclose a square area. It appeared to have been, 
one of those rude temples, or places of incantation or worship, known to 
the metas, or priests, where certain rites and ceremonies are performed. 
But it was not an ordinary medicine lodge. There had been far more 
care in its construction. 

On reaching the village of Sandy lake, on the upper Mississippi, the 
figures of animals, birds, and other devices were found, on the rude cof- 
fins, or wrappings of their dead, which were scaffolded around the pre- 
cincts of the fort, and upon the open shores of the lake. Similar devices 
were also observed, here, as at other points in this region, upon their 



598 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



arms, war-clubs, canoes, and other pieces of moveable property, as well 
as upon their grave posts. 

In the descent of the Mississippi, we observed such devices painted on 
a rock, below and near the mouth of Elk river, and at a rocky island 
in the river, at the Little Falls. In the course of our descent to the Falls 
at St Anthony, we observed another bark letter, as the party now began 
to call these inscriptions, suspended on a high pole, on an elevated bank 
of the river, on its west shore. At this spot, where we encamped for the 
night, and which is just opposite a point of highly crystalized hornblende 
rock, called the Peace Rock, rising up through the prairie, there were left 
standing the poles or skeletons of a great number of Sioux lodges. It is 
near and a little west of the territorial boundary of the Sioux nation ; and 
on inspecting this scroll of bark, we found ii had reference to a negocia- 
tion for bringing about a permanent peace between the Sioux and Chippe- 
was. A large party of the former, from St. Peter's, headed by their chiefs 
had proceeded thus far, in the hope of meeting the Chippewa hunters, 
on their summer hunt. They had been countenanced, or directed in this 
step, by Col. Leavenworth, the commanding officer of the new post, just 
then about to be erected. The inscription, which was read off at once, by 
the Chippewa Chief Babesacundabee, who was with us, told all this ; it 
gave the name of the Chief who had led the party, and the number of 
his followers, and gave that chief the first assurance he had, that his mis- 
sion for the same purpose, would be favourably received. 

After our arrival at St. Anthony's Falls, it was found that this system 
of picture writing was as familiar to the Dacotah, as we had found it 
among the Algonquin race. At Prairie du Chien, and at Green Bay, 
the same evidences were observed among the Monomonees, and the Win- 
nebagoes, at Chicago among the Pottowottomies, and at Michilimakinac, 
among the Chippewas and Ottawas who resort, in such numbers, to that 
Island. While at the latter place, on my return, 1 went to visit the grave 
of a noted chief of the Monomonee tribe, vvho had been known by his 
P^rench name of Toma, i. e. Thomas. He had been buried on the hill 
west of the village ; and on looking at his Ad-je-da-tig or grave post, 
it bore a pictorial inscription, commemorating some of the promment 
achievements of his life. 

These hints servfed to direct my attention to the subject when I returned 
to the country in 1822. The figures of a deer, a bear, a turtle, and a crane, 
according to this system, stand respectively for the names of men, and 
preserve the language very well, by yielding to the person conversant 
with it, the corresponding words, of Addick, Muckwa, Mickenock, and 
Adjeejauk. Marks, circles, or dots, of various kinds, may symbolize the 
number of warlike deeds. Adjunct devices may tjj-pify or explain adjunct 
acts. If the system went no farther, the record would ^^ield a kind of in- 
formation both gratifying and useful to one of his countrymen who had 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



299 



no letters and was expert in the use of symbols ; and the interpretation 
of it, would be easy and precise in proportion as the signs were general, 
conventional, and well understood. There was abundant evidence in my 
first year's observation, to denote that this mode of communication was in 
vogue, and well understood by the northern tribes ; but it hardly seemed 
susceptible of a farther or extended use. It was not till I had made a 
personal acquaintance with one of their Medas — a man of much intelli- 
gence, and well versed in their customs, religion, and history, that a more 
enlarged application of it appeared to be practicable. I observed in the 
hands of this man a tabular piece of wood, covered over on both sides, 
with a series of devices cut between parallel lines, which he referred to, 
as if they were the notes of his medicine and mystical songs. I heard 
him sing these songs, and observed that their succession was fixed and 
uniform. B}'' cultivating his acquaintance, and by suitable attention and 
presents, such as the occasion rendered proper, he consented to explain 
the meaning of each figure, the object symbolized, and the words attached 
to each symbol. By this revelation, which was made with closed doors, 
I became a member or initiate of the Medicine Society, and also of the 
Wabeno Society. Care was taken to write each sentence of the songs 
and chants in the Indian language, with its appropriate devices, and to 
subjoin a literal translation in English. When this had been done, and 
the system considered, it was very clear that the devices were mnemonic — 
that any person could sing from these devices, very accurately, what he 
had prpviously committed to memor3^ and that the system revealed a cu- 
rious scheme of symbolic notation. 

All the figures thus employed, as the initiatory points of study, related 
exclusively to either the medicine dance, or the wabeno dance : and each 
section of figures, related exclusively to one or the other. There was no 
intermixture or commingling of characters, although the class of subjects 
were sometimes common to each. It was perceived, subsequently, that 
this classification of sym.bols extended to the songs devoted to war, to 
hunting, and to other specific topics. The entire inscriptive system, reach- 
ing from its first rudimental characters, in the ad-je-da-tig, or grave board, 
to the extended roll of bark covered with the incriptions of their magi- 
cians and prophets, derived a new interest from this feature. It was easy 
to perceive that much comparative precision was imparted to interpreta- 
tions in the hands of the initiatejj, which before, or to others, had very 
little. An interest was thus cast over it distinct from its novelty. And 
in truth, the entire pictorial system was thus invested with the character 
of a subject of acurate investigation, which promised both interest and in- 
struction. 

It has been thought that a simple statement of these circumstances, 
would best answer the end in view, and might well occupy the place of a 
more formal or profound introduction. In bringing forward the elements 



300 



THE ART OF PICTURE WRITING. 



of the system, after much reflection, it is thought, however, that a few re- 
marks on the general character of this art may not be out of place. For, 
simple as it is, we perceive in it the native succedaneum for letters. It is 
not only the sole graphic mode they have for communicating ideas, but it 
is the mode of communicating all classes of ideas commonly entertained 
by them — such as their ideas of war, of hunting, of religion, and of 
magic and necromancy. So considered, it reveals a new and unsuspected 
mode of obtaining light on their opinions of a deity, of the structure or 
•cosmogony of the globe, of astronomy, the various classes of natural ob« 
jects, their ideas of immortality and a future state, and the prevalent no- 
tions of the union of spiritual and material matter. So wide and varied, 
indeed, is the range opened by the subject, that we may consider the In- 
dian system of picture writing as the thread which ties up the scroll of 
the Red man's views of life and death, reveals the true theory of Lis 
hopes and fears, and denotes the relation he bears, in the secret chambers 
of his ovvn thoughts, to his Maker. What a stoic and suspicious temper 
would often hold him back from uttering to another, and what a limited 
language would sometimes prevent his fully revealing, if he wished, 
symbols and figures can be made to represent and express. The Indian 
is not a man prone to describe his god, but he is ready to depict him, by a 
symbol. He may conceal under the figures of a serpent, a turtle, or a 
wolf, wisdom, strength, or malignity, or convey under the picture of the 
sun, the idea of a supreme, all-seeing intelligence. But he is not pre- 
pared to discourse upon these things. What he believes on this head, be 
will not declare to a white man or a stranger. His happiness and success 
in life, are thought to depend upon the secrecy of that knowledge of the 
Creator and his system in the Indian view of benign and malignant 
agents. To reveal this to others, even to his own people, is, he believes, 
to expose himself to the counteracting influence of other agents known 
to his subtle scheme of necromancy and superstition, and to hazard suc- 
cess and life itself This conduces to make the Red man eminently a 
rnan of fear, suspicion, and secrecy. But he cannot avoid some of these 
disclosures in his pictures and figures. These figures represent ideas — 
whole ideas, and their juxtaposition or relation on a roll of bark, a tree, or 
a rock, discloses a continuity of ideas. This is the basis of the sj-stem. 

Picture writing is indeed the literature of the Indians. It cannot be 
interpreted, however rudely, without letting one know what the Red man 
thinks and believes. It shadows forth the Indian intellect, it stands in the 
place of letters for the Unishinaba. * It shows the Red man in all pe- 
riods of our history both as he iva^^ and as he is ; for there is nothing 
more true than that, save and except the comparatively few instances 
where they have truly embraced experimental Christianity, there has not 



* A generic terra denoting the common people of the Indian race. 



GRAVE CREEK MOUND. 

This gigantic tumulus, the largest in the Ohio valley, was opened some 
four or five years ago, and found to contain some articles of high antiquarian 
value, in addition to the ordinary discoveries of human bones, 6lc. A 
rotunda was built under its centre, walled with brick, and roofed over, and 
having a long gallery leading into it, at the base of the mound. Around 
this circular wall, in the centre of this heavy and damp mass of earth, with 
its atmosphere of peculiar and pungent character, the skeletons and other 
disinterred articles, are hung up for the gratification of visiters, the whole 
lighted up with candles, which have the effect to give a strikingly sepul- 
chral air to the whole scene. But what adds most to this effect, is a kind 
of exuded flaky matter, very white and soft, and rendered brilliant by 
dependent drops of water, which hangs in rude festoons from the ceiling. 

To this rotunda, it is said, a delegation of Indians paid a visit a year or 
two since. In the " Wheeling Times and Advertiser" of the 30th August 
1843, the following communication, respecting this visit, introducing a 
short dramatic poem, was published. 

" An aged Cherokee chief who, on his way to the west, visited the ro- 
tunda excavated in this gigantic tumulus, with its skeletons and other 
relics arranged around the walls, became so indignant at the desecration 
and display of sepulchral secrets to the white race, that his companions 
and interpreter found it difficult to restrain him from assassinating tho 
guide. His language assumed the tone of fury, and he brandished his 
knife, as they forced him out of the passage. Soon after, he was found 
prostrated, with his senses steeped in the influence of alcohol 

"'Tis not enough! that hated race 

Should hunt us out, from grove and place 

And consecrated shore — where long 

Our fathers raised the lance and song — 

Tis not enough ! — that we must go 

Where streams and rushing fountains flow 

Whose murmurs, heard amid our fears, 

Fall only on a strangers ears — 

'Tis not enough ! — that with a wand, 

They sweep away our pleasant land, 

And bid us, as some giant-foe, 

Or willing, or unwilling go\ 

But they must ope our very graves 

To tell the dead — they too, are slaves." 

^ ' 301 



NAMES OF THE AMERICAN LAKES. 



Ontario, is a word from the Wyandot, or, as called by the Iroquois^ 
duatoghie language. This tribe, prior to the outbreak of the war against 
them, by their kmdred the Iroquois, lived on a bay, near Kingston, which 
was the ancient point of embarkation and debarkation, or, in other words, 
at once the commencement and the terminus of the portage, according to 
the point of destination for all, who passed into or out of the lake. From 
such a point it was natural that a term so euphonous, should prevail among 
Europeans, over the other Indian names in use. The Mohawks and their 
confederates, generally, called it Cadaracqui — which w^as also their name 
for the St. Lawrence. The Onondagas, it is believed, knew it, in early 
times, by the name of Oswego.* Of the meaning of Ontario, we are left 
in the dark by commentators on the Indian. Philology casts some light 
on the subject. The first syllable, on^ it may be observed, appears to be 
the notarial increment or syllable of Onondio, a hill. Tarak, is clearly, 
the same phrase, written darac, by the French, in the Mohawk compound 
of Cadaracqui; and denotes rocks, i. e. i:ocks standing in the water. Ir, 
the final vowels io, we have the same term, with the same meaning whici 
they carry in the Seneca, or old Mingo word Ohio.f It is descriptive of 
an extended and beautiful water prospect, or landscape. It possesses all 
the properties of an exclamation, in other languages, but according to the 
unique principles of the Indian grammar, it is an exclamation-substan- 
tive. How beautiful ! [the prospect, scene present.] 

Erie is the name of a tribe conquered or extinguished by the Iroquois. 
We cannot stop to inquire into this fact historically, farther than to say, 
that it was the policy of this people to adopt into their different tribes of 
the confederacy, the remnants of nations whom they conquered, and that 
it was not probable, therefore, that the Eries were annihilated. Nor is it 
probable that they were a people very remote in kindred and language 
from the ancient Sinondowans, or Senecas, who, it may be supposed, by 
crushing them, destroyed and exterminated their name only, while they 
strengthened their numbers by this inter-adoption. In many old maps, 
this lake bears the name of Erie or "Oskwago." 

Huron, is the nom de guerre of the French, for the "Yendats," as 
they are called in some old authors, or the Wyandots. Charlevoix tells 
us that it is a term derived from the French word hure, [a wild boar,] and 
was applied to this nation from the mode of wearing their hair. "Gluelles 
Hures!" said the first visiters, when they saw them, and hence, according 
to this respectable author, the word Huron. 

• Vide a Reminiscence of Oswego. 

t The sound of i in this word, as in Ontario, is long e in the Indian. 

302 



NAMES OF THE AMERICAN LAKES. 

When this nation, with their confederates, the Algonquins, or Ad iron- 
daks, as the Iroquois called them, were overthrown in several decisive 
battles on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, and compelled 
to fly west; they at first took sheher in this lake, and thus transferred their 
name to it. With them, or at least, at the same general era, came some 
others of the tribes who made a part of the people called by the French, 
Algonquins, or Nipercineans, and who thus constituted the several tiibes, 
speaking a closely cognate language, whose descendants are regarded by 
philologists, as the modern Lake-Algonquins. 

The French somethnes called this Like Mer douce^ or the Placid sea. 
The Odjibwas and some other northern tribes of that stock, call it Ottowa 
lake. No term has been found for it in the Iroquois language, unless it 
be that by which they distinguished its principal seat of trade, negociation 
and early rendezvous, the island of Michilimackinac, which they called 
Tiedonderaghie. 

Michigan is a derivative from two Odjibwa- Algonquin words, signify- 
ing l^rge, i. e. large in relation to masses in the inorganic kingdom, and 
a lake. The French called it, generally, during the earlier periods of 
their transactions, the lake of the lUincse, or Illinois. 

Superior, the most northwesterly, and the largest of the series, is a term 
which appears to have come into general use, at a comparatively early 
era, after the planting of the English colonies. The French bestowed 
upon it, unsuccessfully, one or two names, the last of which was Traci, 
after the French minister of this name. By the Odjibwa-Algonquins, 
who at the period of the French discovery, and who still occupy its 
borders, it is called Gitch-Igomee, or The Big Sea-water; from Gitchee, 
great, and guma, a generic term for bodies of water. The term IGOMA, 
is an abbreviated form of this, suggested for adoption. 



The poetry of the Indians, is the poetry of naked thought. They 
have neither ryhme, nor metre to adorn it. 

Tales and traditions occupy the place of books, with the Red Race. — 
They make up a kind of oral literature, which is resorted to, on long 
winter evenings, for the amusement of the lodge. 

The love of independence is so great with these tribes, that they have 
never been willing to load their political system with the forms of a regu- 
lar government, for fear it might prove oppressive. 

To be governed and to be enslaved, are ideas which have been cou- 
founded by the Indians. 



GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OF THE U. STATES, 



DERIVED FROM THE INDIAN LANGUAGE. 

T%ese Extracts are made from " Cyclopedia Indiaensis " a MS. work in preparaHom 

No. I. 

Hudson River. — By the tribes who inhabited the area of the present 
County of Dutchess, and other portions of its eastern banks, as low dowa 
as Tappan, this river was called Shatemuc — which is believed to be a de- 
rivative from Shata, a pelican. The Minisi, who inhabited the west banks, 
below the point denoted, extending indeed over all the east half of New 
Jersey, to the falls of the Raritan, where they joined their kindred the 
Lenni Lenape, or Delawares proper, called it Mohicanittuck — that is to 
say, River of the Mohicans. The Mohawks, and probably'' the other 
branches of the Iroquois, called it Cahohatatea — a term of which the in- 
terpreters who have furnished the word, do not give an e.xplanation. The 
prefixed term Caho, it may be observed, is their name for the lower and 
principal falls of the Mohawk. Sometimes this prefix was doubled, with 
the particle ha, thrown in between. Hatatea is clearly one of those de- 
scriptive and affirmative phrases representing objects in the vegetable and 
mineral kingdoms, which admitted as we see, in other instances of their 
compounds, a very wide range. By some of the more westerly Iro- 
quois, the river was called Sanatat'y. 

Albany. — The name by which this place was known to the Iroquois, 
at an early day, was Schenectady, a term which, as recently pronounced 
by a daughter of Brant, yet living in Canada, has the still harsher sound 
of Skoh-nek-ta-ti, with a stress on the first, and the accent strongly on 
the second syllable, the third and fourth being pronounced rapidly and 
short. The transference of this name, to its present location, by the Eng 
lish, on the bestowal on the place by Col. Nichols, of a new name, derived 
from the Duke of York's Scottish title, is well known, and is stated, 
with some connected traditions, by Judge Benson, in his eccentric memoir 
before the New York Historical Society. The meaning of this name, as 
derived from the authority above quoted, is Beyond the Pines, having 
been applied exclusively in ancient times, to the southern end of the 
ancient portage path, from the Mohawk to the Hudson. By the Minci, 
who did not live here, but extended, however, on the-west shore above 
Coxackie, and even Coeymans, it appeare to have been called Gaishtinic. 
The Mohegans, who long continued to occupy the present area of Rens- 
selear and Columbia counties, called it Pempotawuthut, that is to say, the 
City or Place of the Council Fire. None of these terms appear to have 

304 



GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY OP THE U, STATES. 



305 



found favour with the European settlers, and, together with their prior 
names of Beaver wyck and Fort Orange, they at once gave way, in 1664^ 
to the present name. A once noted eminence, three miles west, on 
the plains, i. e. Trader's Hill, was called Isutchera, or by prefixing the 
name for a hill, Yonondio Isutchera. It means the hill of oil. Norman's 
Kill, which enters the Hudson a little below, the Mohawks called 
Towasentha, a term which is translated by Dr. Yates, to mean^ a place 
of many dead. 

Niagara. — It is not in unison, perhaps, with general expectation, to find 
that the exact translation of this name does not entirely fulfil poetic pre- 
conception. By the term 0-ne-aw-ga-ra, the Mohawks and their co-tribes 
described on the return of their war excursions, the neck of water which 
connects lake Erie with Ontario. The term is derived from their name 
for the human neck. Whether this term was designed to have, as many 
of their names do, a symbolic import, and to denote the importance of this 
communication in geography, as connecting the head and heart of the 
country, can only be conjectured. Nor is it, in this instance, probable. 
When Europeans came to see the gigantic falls which marked the strait, 
it was natural that they should have supposed the name descriptive of that 
particular feature, rather than the entire river and portage. We have 
been assured, however, that it is not their original name for the water-fall, 
although with them, as with us, it may have absorbed this meaning. 

Buffalo. — The name of this place in the Seneca, is Te-ho-sa-ro-ro. Its 
import is not stated. 

Detroit. — By the Wyandots, this place is called Teuchsagrondie ; 
by the Lake tribes of the Algic type, Wa-we-a-tun-ong: both terms sig- 
nify the Place of the turning or Turned Channel. It has been remarked 
by visiters who reach this place at night, or in dark weather, or are other- 
wise inattentive to the courses, that owing to the extraordinary involutions 
of the current the sun appears to rise in the wrong place. 

Chicago. — This name, in the Lake Algonquin dialects, to preserve the 
game mode of orthography, is derived from Chicagowunzh, the wild 
onion or leek. The orthography is French, as they were the discoverers 
and early settlers of this part of the west. Kaug, in these dialects is a 
porcupine, and She kaug a polecat. The analogies in these words are 
apparent, but whether the onion was named before or after the animal, 
must be judged if the age of the derivation be sought for. 

Tuscaloosa, a river of Alabama. From the Chacta words tushka, a 
warrior, and lum black. — [Gallatin.] 

Aragiske, the Iroquois name for Virginia. 

AssARiGOA, the name of the Six Nations for the Governor of Virginia. 
Owenagungas, a general name of the Iroquois for the New England 
Indians. 

O-rESEONTEo, a spring which is the head of the river Delaware. 

20 



306 GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY UF THE U. STATES. 



Ontonagon ; a considerable river of lake Superior, noted from early- 
times, for the lar^e mass of native copper found on its banks. This name 
is said to have been derived from the following incident. It is known 
that there is a small bay and dead water for some distance within its 
mouth. In and out of this embayed water, the lake alternately flows, ac- 
cording to the influence of the winds, and other causes, upon its level. 
An Indian woman had left her wooden dish, or Onagon, on the sands, at 
the shore of this little bay, where she had been engaged. Oncoming 
back from her lodge, the outflowing current had carried off her valued 
utensil. Nia Nin-do-nau-gon ! she exclaimed, for it was a curious piece 
of worlvmanship. That is to say — Alas ! my dish! 

Chuah-nah-whah-hah, or Valley of the Mountains. A new pass in the 
Rocky Mountains, discovered within a few years. It is supposed to be 
in N. latitude about 40°. The western end of the valley gap is 30 miles 
wide, which narrows to 20 at its eastern termination, it then turns oblique 
to the north, and the opposing sides appear to close the pass, yet there is 
a narrow way quite to the foot of the mountain. On the summit there is 
a large beaver pond, which has outlets both ways, but the eastern stream 
dries early in the season, while there is a continuous flow of water west 
In its course, it has several beautiful, but low cascades, and terminates in a 
placid and delightful stream. This pass is now used by emigrants. 

Aquid^kck.— The Narragansett name for Rhode Island. Roger Wil- 
liams observes, that he could never obtain the meaning of it from the na- 
tives. The Dutch, as appears by a map of Novi Belgii published at Am- 
sterdam in 1659, called it Roode Eylant, or Red Island, from the autum- 
nal colour of its foliage. The present term, as is noticed, in Vol. III. of 
the Collections of the R. I. Hist. Soc. is derived from this. 

Incapatchow, a beautiful lake in the mountains at the sources of the 
river Hudson. — [Charles F. Hoffman, Esq.] 

HousATONic 5 a river originating in the south-western part of Massa- 
chusetts, and flowing through the State of Connecticut into Long Island 
Sound, at Stratford It is a term of Mohegan origin. This tribe on retiring 
eastward from the banks of the Hudson, passed over the High-lands, into 
this inviting valley. We have no transmitted etymology of the term, 
and must rely on the general principles of their vocabulary. It appears 
to have been called the valley of the stream beyond the Mountains, from 
071. the notarial sign of wudjo, a mountain, atun, a generic phrase for 
stream or channel, and ic, the inflection for locality. 

Wea-nud-nec. — The Indian name, as furnished by Mr. O'Sullivan, 
[D. Rev.] for Saddle Mountain, Massachusetts. It appears to be a deriva- 
tive from Wa-we-a, round, i. e. any thing round or crooked, in the inani- 
mate creation. 

Ma-hai-we ; The Mobep-an term, as given by Mr. Bryant [N. Y. E. P.J 
for Great Harrington, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. 



GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOG-S OP THE U. STATES. 307 



MAssACHijaETrs. — This was not the name of a particular tribe, but a 
geographical term applied, it should seem, to that part of the shores of the 
North Atlantic, which is swept by the tide setting into, and around tho 
peninsula of Cape Cod, and the wide range of coast trending southerly 
It became a generic word, at an early day, for the tribes who inhabited this 
coast. It is said to be a word of Narragansett origin, and to signify the 
Blue Hills. This is the account given of it by Roger Williams, who 
was toiu, by the Indians, that it had its origin from the appearance of 
an island off the coast. It would be more in conformity to the general 
requisitions of ethnography, to denominate the language the New Eng- 
land-Algonquin, for there are such great resemblances in the vocabulary 
and such an identity in grammatical construction, in these tribes, that we 
are constantly in danger, by partial conclusions as to original supremacy, 
of doing injustice. The source of origin was doubtless west and south 
west, but we cannot stop at the Narragansetts, who were themselves deriva- 
tive from tribes still faither south. The general meaning given by Wil- 
lianris seems, however, to be sustained, so far as can now be judged. The 
terminations in eU^ and set^ as well as those in at and denoted locality 
in these various tribes. We see also, in the antipenultimate Chu, the root— 
of Wudjo, a mountain. 

Ta-ha-wus, a very commanding elevation, several thousand feet above 
the sea, which has of late years, been discovered at the sources of the 
Hudson, and named Mount Marcy. It signifies, he splits the sky. — 
[Charles F. Hoffman, Esq.] 

MoNG, the name of a distinguished chief of New England, as it appears 
to be recorded in the ancient pictorial inscription on the Dighton Rock, 
in Massachusetts, who flourished before the country was colonized by the 
English. He was both a war captain, and a prophet, and employed the 
arts of the latter office, to increase his power and influence, in the former. 
By patient application of his ceremonial arts, he secured the confidence 
of a large body of men, who were led on, in the attack on his enemies, 
by a mavi named Piz-hu. In this onset, it is claimed that he killed forty 
men, and lost three. To the warrior who should be succesful, in this en- 
terprize, he had promised his younger sister. [Such are the leading events 
symbolized by this inscription, of which extracts giving full details, as in- 
terpreted by an Indian chief, now living, and read before the Am. Ethno- 
logical Society, in 1843, will be furnished, in a subsequent number.] 

Tioga. — A stream, and a county of the State of New- York. From 
Teoga, a swift current, exciting admiration. 

Dlonderoga, an ancient name of the Mohavi'k tribe, for the site at the 
mouth of the Schoharie creek, where Fort Hunter was afterwards built. 
[Col. W. L. Stone.] 

Almouchico, a generic name of the Indians for New England, as printed 



SOS AMERICAN ANTICiblTIES, ETC. 

on the Amsterdam map of 1659, in which it is stated that it was thus " by 
d inwoonders genaenit." (So named by the natives.) 

IiK'CcisiA, a name bestowed in the map, above quoted, on that portion of 
the present state of Vermont, which lies west of the Green Mountains, 
stretching along the eastern bank of Lake Champlain. By the applica- 
tion of the word, it is perceived that the French were not alone m the use 
they made of the apparently derivative term "Iroquois," which they 
gave to the (then) Five Nations. 



NAMES OF THE SEASONS. 

The following are tne names of the four seasons, in the Odjibwa 
tongue : 

Pe-bon, Winter, From Kone, Snow. 
Si3-gwun, Spring, '* Seeg, Running water. 

Ne-bin, Summer, " Anib, A leaf 

Ta-gwa-gi, Autumn, " Gwag, The radix of behind <S&C. 
By adding the letter g to these terms, they are placed in the relation of 
verbs in the future tense, but a limited future, and the terms then denote 
next winter, &lc. Years, in their account of time, are counted by winters. 
There is no other term, but pe-boan, for a year. The year consists of 
twelve lunar months, or moons. A moon is called Geezis, or when 
spoken of in contradistinction to the sun, Dibik Geezis, or night-sun 
The cardinal points are as follows. 

(a) North, Ke wa din-ung. 

{b} South, O sha wan-ung. 

(c) East, Wa bun-ung. 

(d) West, Ka be un-ung. 

a. Kewadin is a compound derived from Ke-vira, to return, or come 
home, and nodin, the wind. b. Oshauw is, from a root not apparent, but 
which produces also ozau, yellow, &c. c. Waban is from ab, or wab, light 
d. Kabeun, is the name of a mythological person, who is spoken of, in 
their fictions, as the father of the winds. The inflection ung, or oong, in 
each term, denotes course, olace, or locality. 



i 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE 
WESTERN COUNTRY, 

ADDRESSED TO THE LATE WILLIAM L. STONE, EDITOR OF THE «BW tOKK 
COMMERCIAL AOVEKTISER. 



I. 

Wheeling (Va.), August 19th, 1843. 
I HAVE just accomplished the passage of the Alleghany mountains, in 
the direction from Baltimore to this place, and must say, that aside from 
the necessary fatigue of night riding, the pass from the Cumberland 
mountains and Laurel Hill is one of the easiest and most free from 
danger of any known to me in this vast range. An excellent railroad 
now extends from Baltimore, b}' Frederick and Harper's Ferry, up the 
Potomac valley and its north branch quite to Cumberland, which is 
seated just under the mountains, whose peaks would seem to bar all 
farther approach. The national road finds its way, however, through a 
gorge, and winds about where " Alps on Alps arise," till the whole vast 
and broad-backed elevation is passed, and we descend west, over a 
smooth, well constructed macadamized road, with a velocity which is 
some compensation for the toil of winding our way up. Uniontown is 
the first principal place west. The Monongahela is crossed at Browns- 
ville, some forty miles above Pittsburgh, whence the road, which is 
everywhere well made and secured with fine stone bridges, ctilverts and 
viaducts, winds around a succession of most enchanting hills, till it 
enters a valley, winds up a few more hills, and brings the travellers out, 
on the banks of the Ohio, at this town 

309 



310 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



The entire distance from the head of the Chesapeake to the waters 
of the Ohio is not essentially different from three hundred miles. We 
were less than two days in passing it, twenty-six hours of which, part 
night and part day, were spent in post-coaches between Cumberland and 
this place. Harper's Ferry is an impressive scene, but less so than it 
would be to a tourist who had not his fancy excited by injudicious 
descriptions. To me, the romance was quite taken away by driving 
into it with a tremendous clattering power of steam. The geological 
structure of this section of country, from water to water, is not without 
an impressive lesson. In rising from the Chesapeake waters the strati- 
fied rocks are lifted up, pointing west, or towards the Alleghanies, and 
after crossing the summit they point east, or directly contrary, like the 
two sides of the roof of a house, and leave the inevitable conclusion 
that the Alleghanies have been lifted up by a lateral rent, as it were, at 
the relative point of the ridge pole. It is in this way that the granites 
and their congeners have been raised up into their present elevations. 

I did not see any evidence of that wave-like or undulatory structure, 
which was brought forward as a theory last year, in an able paper for 
warded by Professor Rogers, and read at the meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science at Manchester. No organic 
remains are, of course, visible, in this particular section, at least until 
we strike the coal and iron-stone formation of Pittsburgh. But I have 
been renewedly impressed with the opinion, so very opposite to the 
present geological theory, that less than seven thousand years is suffi- 
cient, on scientific principles, to account for all the phenomena of fossil 
plants, shells, bones and organic remains, as well as the displacements, 
disruptions, subsidences and rising of strata, and other evidences of 
extensive physical changes and disturbances on the earth's surface. And 
I hope to live to see some American geologist build up a theory on just 
philosophical and scientific principles, which shall bear the test of truth. 

But you will, perhaps, be ready to think that I have felt more interest 
in the impressions of plants in stone, than is to be found in the field of 
waving corn before the eye. 1 have, however, by no means neglected 
the latter ; and can assure you that the crops of corn, wheat and other 
grains, throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania and Western Virginia, are 
excellent. Even the highest valleys in the Alleghanies are covered 
with crops of corn, or fields of stacked wheat and other grains. Gene- 
rally, the soil west of the mountains is more fertile. The influence of 
the great western limestones, as one of its original materials, and of the 
oxide of iron, is clearly denoted in heavier and more thrifty cornfields 
along the Monongahela and Ohio valleys. 

Of the Ohio River itself, one who had seen it in its full flow, in April 
and May, would hardly recognize it now. Shrunk in a volume far 
below its noble banks, with long spits of sand and gravel running almost 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



311 



across it, and level sandy margins, once covered by water, where armies 
might now manoeuvre, it is but the skeleton of itself. Steamboats of a 
hundred tons burden now scarcely creep along its channel, which would 
form cockboats for the floating palaces to be seen here in the days of 
its vernal and autumnal glory. 

Truly yours, 

HENRY R. COLCRAFT 



II. 

Grave Creek Flats (Va.), August 23, 1S43. 

I HAVE devoted several days to the examination of the antiquities of 
this place and its vicinity, and find them to be of even more interest 
than was anticipated. The most prominent object of curiosity is the 
great tumulus, of which notices have appeared in western papers ; but 
this heavy structure of earth is not isolated. It is but one of a series 
of mounds and other evidences of ancient occupation at this point, of 
more than ordinary interest. I have visited and examined seven mounds, 
situated within a short distance of each other. They occupy the summit 
level of a rich alluvial plain, stretching on the left or Virginia bank of 
the Ohio, between the junctions of Big and Little Grave Creeks with 
that stream. They appear to have been connected by low earthen 
entrenchments, of which plain traces are still visible on some parts of 
the commons. They included a well, stoned up in the usual manner, 
"which is now filled with rubbish. 

The summit of this plain is probably seventy-five feet above the 
present summer level of the Ohio. It constitutes the second bench, or 
rise of land, above the water. It is on this summit, and on one of the 
most elevated parts of it, that the great tumulus stands. It is in the 
shape of a broad cone, cut off at the apex, where it is some fifty feet 
across. This area is quite level, and commands a view of the entire 
plain, and of the river above and below, and the west shores of the 
Ohio in front. Any public transaction on this area would be visible to 
multitudes around it, and it has, in this respect, all the advantages of the 
Mexican and Yucatanese teocalli. The circumference of the base has 
been stated at a little under nine hundred feet ; the height is sixty-nine 
feet. 

The most interesting object of antiquarian inquiry is a small flat stone, 
inscribed with antique alphabetic characters, which was disclosed on the 
opening of the large mound. These characters are in the ancient rock 
al^jhabet of sixteen right and acute angled single stokes, used by the 
Pelasgi and other early Mediterranean nations, and which is the parent 



312 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



of the modern Runic as well as the Bardic. It is now some four or iiye 
years since the completion of the excavations, so far as they have been 
made, and the discovery of this relic. Several copies of it soon got 
abroad, which differed from each other, and, it was supposed, from the 
original. This conjecture is true ; neither the print published in the 
Cincinnati Gazette, in 1839, nor that in the American Pioneer, in 1843, 
is correct. I have terminated this uncertainty by taking^ copies by a 
scientific process, which does not leave the lines and figures to the 
uncertainty of man's pencil. 

The existence of this ancient art here could hardly be admitted, other- 
wise than as an insulated fact, without some corroborative evidence, in 
habits and customs, which it would be reasonable to look for in the 
existing ruins of ancient occupancy. It is thought some such testimony 
has been found. I rode out yesterday three miles back to the range of 
high hills which encompass this sub-valley, to see a rude tower of stone 
standing on an elevated point, called Parr's point, which commands a 
view of the whole plain, and which appears to have been constructed 
as a watch-tower, or look-out, from which to descry an approaching 
enemy. It is much dilapidated. About six or seven feet of the work 
is still entire. It is circular, and composed of rough stones, laid with- 
out mortar, or the mark of a hammer. A heavy mass of fallen wall lies 
around, covering an area of some forty feet in diameter. Two similar 
points of observation, occupied by dilapidated towers, are represented to 
exist, one at the prominent summit of the Ohio and Grave Creek hills, 
and another on the promontory on the opposite side of the Ohio, in 
Belmont county, Ohio. 

It is known to all acquainted with the warlike habits of our Indians, 
that they never have evinced the foresight to post a regular sentry, and 
these rude towers may be regarded as of cotemporaneous age with the 
interment of the inscription. 

Several polished tubes of stone have been found, in one of the lesser 
mounds, the use of which is not very apparent. One of these, now on 
my table, is 12 inches long, ll wide at one end, and 1-J at the other. It 
is made of a fine, compact, lead blue steatite, mottled, and has been 
constructed by boring, in the manner of a gun barrel. This boring is con- 
tinued to within about three-eighths of an inch of the larger end, through 
which but a small aperture is left. If this small aperture be looked 
through, objects at a distance are more clearly seen. Whether it had 
this telescopic use, or others, the degree of art evinced in its construc- 
tion is far from rude. By inserting a wooden rod and valve, this tube 
would be converted into a powerful syphon, or syringe. 

I have not space to notice one or two additional traits, which serve to 
awaken new interest at this ancient point of aboriginal and apparently 
mixed settlement, and must omit them till my next. 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTItY. 



313 



III. 

Grave Creek Flats, August 24, 1843. 

The great mound at these flats was opened as a place of public resort 
about four years ago. For this purpose a horizontal gallery to its centre 
was dug and bricked up, and provided with a door. The centre was 
"walled round as a rotunda, of about twenty-five feet diameter, and a 
shaft sunk from the top to intersect it ; it was in these two excavations 
that the skeletons and accompanying relics and ornaments were found. 
All these articles are arranged for exhibition in this rotunda, which is 
lighted up with candles. The lowermost skeleton is almost entire, and 
in a good state of preservation, and is put up by means of wires, on the 
walls. It has been overstretched in the process so as to measure six 
feet ; it should be about five feet eight inches. It exhibits a noble frame 
of the human species, bearing a skull with craniological developments 
of a highly favorable charcter. The face bones are elongated, with a 
long chin and symmetrical jaw, in which a full and fine set of teeth^ 
above and below, are present. The skeletons in the upper vault, where 
the inscription stone was found, are nearly all destroyed. 

It is a damp and gloomy repository, and exhibits in the roof and walls 
of the rotunda one of the most extraordinary sepulchral displays which 
the world affords. On casting the eye up to the ceiling, and the heads 
of the pillars supporting it, it is found to be encrusted, or rather fes- 
tooned, with a white, soft, flaky mass of matter, which had exuded from 
the mound above. This apparently animal exudation is as white as 
snow. It hangs in pendent masses and globular drops ; the surface is 
covered with large globules of clear water, which in the reflected light 
have all the brilliancy of diamonds. These drops of water trickle to the 
floor, and occasionally the exuded white matter falls. The wooden 
pillars are furnished with the appearance of capitals, by this substance. 
That it is the result of a soil highly charged with particles of matter, 
arising from the decay or incineration of human bodies, is the only 
theory by which we may account for the phenomenon. Curious and 
unique it certainly is, and v/ith the faint light of a few candles it would 
not require much imagination to invest the entire rotunda with sylph- 
like forms of the sheeted dead. 

An old Cherokee chief, who visited this scene, recently, with his 
companions, on his way to the West, was so excited and indignant at 
the desecration of the tumulus, by this display of bones and relics to the 
gaze of the white race, that he became furious and unmanageable ; his 
friends and interpreters had to force him out, to prevent his assassinating 
the guide ; and soon after he drowned his senses in alcohol. 

That this spot was a very ancient point of settlement by the hunter 



314 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



race in the Ohio valley, and that it was inhabited by the present red 
race of North American Indians, on the arrival of whites west of the 
Alleghanies, are both admitted facts ; nor would the historian and anti* 
quary ever have busied themselves farther in the matter had not the 
inscribed stone come to light, in the year 1839. I was informed, yes- 
terday, that another inscription stone had been found in one of the 
smaller mounds on these flats, about five years ago, and have obtained 
data sufficient as to its present location to put the Ethnological Society 
on its trace. If, indeed, these inscriptions shall lead us to admit that 
the continent was visited by Europeans prior to the era of Columbus, it 
is a question of very high antiquarian interest to determine who the 
visitors were, and what they have actually left on record in these antique 
tablets. 

I have only time to add a single additional fact. Among the articles 
found in this cluster of mounds, the greater part are commonplace, in 
our western mounds and town ruins. 1 have noticed but one which 
bears the character of that unique type of architecture found by Mr. 
Stephens and Mr. Catherwood in Central America and Yucatan. With 
the valuable monumental standards of comparison furnished by these 
gentlen)en before me, it is impossible not to recognize, in an ornamental 
stone, found in one of the lesser mounds here, a specimen of similar 
workmanship. It is in the style of the heavy feather-sculptured orna- 
ments of Yucatan — the material being a wax yellow sand-stone, dark- 
ened by time. 1 have taken such notes and drawings of the objects 
above referred to, as will enable me, I trust, in due time, to give a con- 
nected account of them to our incipient society. 



Massillon, Ohio, August 27th, 1843. 
Since my last letter I have traversed the State of Ohio, by .stage, to 
this place. In coming up the Virginia banks of the Ohio from Mounds- 
ville, I passed a monument, of simple construction, erected to the 
memory of a Captain Furman and twenty-one men, who were killed by 
the Indians, in 1777, at that spot. They had been out, from the fort at 
Wheeling, on a scouting party, and were waylaid at a pass called the 
narrows. The Indians had dropped a pipe and some trinkets in the 
path, knowing that the white men would pick them up, and look at 
them, and while the latter were grouped together in this act, they fired 
and killed every man. The Indians certainly fought hard for the pos- 
sessi«;n of this valley, aiming, at all times, to make up by stratagem what 
they lacked in numbers. 1 doubt whether there is in the history of the 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



315 



spread of civilisation over the world a theatre so rife with partisan 
adventure, massacre and murder, as the valley of the Ohio and tha 
country west of the Alleghany generally presented between the break- 
ing out of the American revolution, in '76, and the close of the Black 
Hawk war in 1832. The true era, in fact, begins with the French war, 
in 1744, and terminates with the Florida war, the present year. A 
work on this subject, drawn from authentic sources, and written with 
spirit and talent, would be read with avidity and possess a permanent 
interest. 

The face of the country, from the Ohio opposite Wheeling to the 
waters of the Tuscarawas, the north fork of the Muskingum, is a series 
of high rolling ridges and knolls, up and down which the stage travels 
slowly. Yet this section is fertile and well cultivated in wheat and 
corn, particularly the latter, which looks well. This land cannot be 
purchased under forty or fifty dollars an acre. Much of it was originally 
bought for seventy-five cents per acre. It was over this high, wavy land, 
that the old Moravian missionary road to Gnadenhutten ran, and I pur- 
sued it to within six miles of the latter place. You will recollect this 
locality as the scene of the infamous murder, by Williamson and his 
parly, of the non-resisting Christian Delawares under the ministry of 
Heckewelder and Ziesberger. 

On the Stillwater, a branch of the Tuscarawas, we first come to level 
lands. This stream was noted, in early days, for its beaver and other 
furs. The last beaver seen here was shot on its banks twelve years 
ago. It had three legs, one having probably been cauo;ht in a trap or 
been bitten off. It is known that not only the beaver, but the otter, 
wolf and fox, will bite off a foot, to escape the iron jaws of a trap. It 
has been said, but I know not on \\ hat good authority, that the hare 
will do the same. 

We first struck the Ohio canal at Dover. It is in every respect a 
well constructed work, with substantial locks, culverts and viaducts. It 
is fifty feet wide at the top, and is more than adequate for all present 
purposes. It pursues the valley of the Tuscarawas up to the sununit, 
by which it is connected with the Cuyahuga, w^hose outlet is at Cleve- 
land. Towns and villages have sprung up along its banks, where before 
there was a wilderness. Nothing among them impressed me more than 
the town of Zoar, which is exclusively settled by Germans. There 
seems something of the principles of association — one of the fallacies of 
the age — in its large and single town store, hotel, &c., but I do not 
know how far they may extend. Individual property is held. The 
evidences of thrift and skill, in cultivation and mechanical and mill work, 
are most striking. Every dwelling here is surrounded with fruit and 
fruit trees. The botanical garden and hot-house are on a large scale, 
and exhibit a favorable specimen of the present state of horticulture. 



316 



LETTERS uss IHE ANTIQUITIES 



One of the assistants very ikiivdly plucked for me some fine fruit, and 
voluntarily offered it. Zoar is quite a place of resort as a ride for the 
neighboring towns. 1 may remark, en passant , that there is a large 
proportion of German population throughout Ohio. They are orderly, 
thrifty and industrious, and fall readily into our political system and 
habits. Numbers of them are well educated in the German. They 
embrace Lutherans as well as Roman Catholics, the latter predomi- 
nating. 

Among the towns which have recently sprung up on the line of the 
canal, not the least is the one from which I date this letter. The name 
of the noied French divine (Massillon) wa& affixed to an uncultivated 
spot, by some Boston gentlemen, some twelve or fourteen years ago. 
It is now one of the most thriving, city-looking, business places in the 
interior of Ohio. In the style of its stores, mills and architecture, il 
reminds the visitor of that extraordinary growth and spirit which marked 
the early years of the building of Rochester. It numbers churches for 
Episcopalians, Baptists, jSTethodists and Presbyterians, and also Lu- 
therans and Romanists. About three hundred barrels of flour can be 
turned out per diem, by its mills. It is in the greatest wheat-growing 
county in Ohio (Stark), but is not the county-seat, which is at Canton. 



Detroit, Sept. 15th, 1843. 
In passing from the interior of Ohio toward Lake Erie, the face of the 
country exhibits, in the increased size and number of its boulder stones, 
evidences of the approach of the traveller toward those localities of 
sienites and other crystalline rocks, from which these erratic blocks and 
water-worn masses appear to have been, in a remote age of our planet, 
removed. The soil in this section has a freer mixture of the broken 
down slates, of which portions are still in place on the shores of Lake 
Erie. The result is a clayey soil, less favorable to wheat and Indian 
corn. We came down the cultivated valley of the Cuyahoga, and 
reached the banks of the lake at the fine tow^n of Cleveland, which is 
elevated a hundred feet, or more, above it, and commands a very ex- 
tensive view of the lake, the harbor and its ever-busy shipping. A day 
was employed, by stage, in this section of my tour, and the next carried 
me, by steamboat, to this ancient French capital. Detroit has many 
interesting historical associations, and appears destined, when its railroad 
is finished, to be the chief thoroughfare for travellers to Chicago and the 
Mississipni vallev. As my attention has, however, been more taken 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



317 



up, on my way, with the past than the present and future condition of 
the West, the chief interest which the route has excited must necessarily 
arise from the same source. 

Michigan connects itself in its antiquarian features with that charac- 
tf r of pseudo-civilisation, or modified barbarianism, of which the works 
•and mounds and circumvallations at Grave Creek Flats, at Marietta, at 
Circleville and other well known points, are evidences. That this 
improved condition of the hunter state had an ancient but partial con- 
nection with the early civilisation of Europe, appears now to be a fair 
inference, from the inscribed stone of Grave Creek, and other traces of 
European arts, discovered of late. It is also evident that the central 
American type of the civilisation, or rather advance to civilisation, of the 
red race, reached this length, and finally went down, with its gross idol- 
atry and horrid rites, and was merged in the better known and still ex- 
isting form of the hunter state which was found, respectively, by Cabot, 
Cartier, Verrezani, Hudson, and others, who first dropped anchor on our 
coasts. 

There is strong evidence furnished by a survey of the western coun- 
try that the teocalli type of the Indian civilisation, so to call it, devel- 
oped itself from the banks of the Ohio, in Tennessee and Virginia, west 
and north-westwardly across the sources of the Wabash, the Musking- 
um and other streams, toward Lake Michigan and the borders of Wis- 
consin territory. The chief evidences of it, in Michigan and Indiana, 
consist of a remarkable series of curious garden beds, or accurately fur- 
rowed fields, the perfect outlines of which have been preserved by the 
grass of the oak openings and prairies, and even among the heaviest for- 
ests. These remains of an ancient cultivation have attracted much atten- 
tion fron observing settlers on the Elkhart, the St. Joseph's, the Kala- 
mazoo and Grand river of Michigan I possess some drawings of these 
anomalous remains of by-gone industry ii» the hunter race, taken in for- 
mer years, which are quite remarkable. It is worthy of remark, too, 
that no large tumuli, or teocalli, exist in this particular portion of the 
West, the ancient population of which may therefore be supposed to 
have been borderers, or frontier bands, who resorted to the Ohio valley 
as their capital, or place of annual visitation. All the mounds scattered 
through Northern Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, are mere barrows, or re- 
positories of the dead, and would seem to have been erected posterior to 
the fall or decay of the gross idol worship and the offer of human sacri- 
fice. I have, within a day or two, received a singular implement or or- 
nament of stone, of a crescent shape, from Oakland, in this State, which 
connects the scattered and out-lying remains of the smaller mounds, 
and traces of ancient agricultural labor, with the antiquities of Grave 
Creek Flats 



318 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



VI. 

Detroit, Sept. 16th, 1S43. 
The antiquities of Western America are to be judged of by isolat- 
ed and disjointed discoveries, which are often made at widely distant 
points and spread over a very extensive area. The labor of comparison 
and discrimination of the several eras which the objects of these discov- 
eries establish, is increased by this diffusion and disconnection of the 
times and places of their occurrence, and is, more than all, perhaps, hin- 
dered and put back by the eventual carelessness of the discoverers, and 
the final loss or mutilation of the articles disclosed. To remedy this evil, 
every discovery made, however apparently unimportant, should in this 
era of the diurnal and periodical press be put on record, and the objects 
themselves be either carefully kept, or given to some public scientific in- 
stitution. 

An Indian chief called the Black Eagle, of river Au Sables (Michigan), 
discovered a curious antique pipe of Etruscan ware, a few years ago, at 
Thunder Bay. This pipe, which is now in my possession, is as remark- 
able for its form as for the character of the earthenware from which it 
is made, differing as it does so entirely from the coarse earthen pots and 
vessels, the remains of which are scattered so generally throughout 
North America. The form is semi-circular or horn-shaped, with a qua- 
drangular bowl, and having impressed in the ware ornaments at each angle. 
I have never before, indeed, seen any pipes of Indian manufacture of 
baked clay, or earthenware, such articles being generally carved out of 
steatite, indurated clays, or other soft mineral substances. It is a pecu- 
liarity of this pipe that it was smoked from the small end, which is rounded 
for the purpose of putting it between the lips, without the intervention 
of a stem. 

The discoverer told me that he had taken it from a very antique grave. 
A large hemlock tree, he said, had been blown down on the banks of the 
river, tearing up, by its roots, a large mass of earth. At the bottom of the 
excavation thus made he discovered a grave, which contained a vase, 
out of which he took the pipe with some other articles. The vase, he 
said, was broken, so that he did not deem it worth bringing away. The 
other articles he described as bones. 

Some time since I accompanied the chief Ke vakonce, to get an an- 
cient clay pot, such as the Indians used when the Europeans arrived on 
the continent. He said that he had discovered two such pots, in an en- 
tire state, in a cave, or crevice, on one of the rocky islets extending 
north of Point Tessalon, which is the northern cape of the entrance of 
the Straits of St. Mary's into Lake Huron. From this locality he had 
removed one of them, and concealed it at a distant point. We travelled 



OP THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



319 



in canoes. We landed on the northern shore of the large island of St, 
Joseph, which occupies the jaws of those expanded straits. He led me 
up an elevated ridge, covered with forest, and along a winding narrow 
path, conducting to some old Indian cornfields. All at once he stopped 
in this path. " We are now very near it," he said, and stood still, look- 
ing toward the spot where he had concealed it, beneath a decay ed trunk. 
He did not, at last, appear to be willing to risk his luck in life — such is 
Indian superstition— by being the actual discoverer of this object of vene- 
ration to a white man, but allowed me to make, or rather complete, the 
re-discovery. 

With the exception of being cracked, this vessel is entire. It corres- 
ponds, in material and character, with the fragments of pottery usually 
found. It is a coarse ware, tempered with quartz or feld-spar, and such 
las would admit a sudden fire to be built around it. It is some ten inches 
in diameter, tulip-shaped, with a bending lip, and without supports be- 
neath. It was evidently used as retorts in a sand bath, there being no 
contrivance for suspending it. I have forwarded this curious relic entire 
to the city for examination. I asked the chief who presented it to me, 
and who is a man of good sense, well acquainted with Indian traditions, 
how long it was since such vessels had been used by his ancestors. He 
replied, that he was the seventh generation, in a direct line, since the 
French had first arrrived in the lakes. 



vn 

Detroit, Sept. 16th, 1S43. 

There was found, in an island at the west extremity of Lake Huron, 
an ancient repository of human bones, which appeared to have been gath- 
ered from their first or ordinary place of sepulture, and placed in this 
rude mausoleum. The island is called Isle Ronde by the French, and is 
of small dimensions, although it has a rocky basis and affords sugar ma- 
ple and other trees of the hard wood species. This repository was first 
disclosed by the action of the lake against a diluvial shore, in which the 
bones were buried. At the time of my visit, vertebra, tibiae, portions of 
crania and other bones were scattered down the fallen bank, and served 
to denote the place of their interment, which was on the margin of the 
plain. Some persons supposed thai the leg and thigh bones dt-nottd an 
unusual length ; but by placing them hip by hip with the living speci- 
men, this opinion was not sustained. 

All these bones had been placed longitudinally. They were arranged in 
order, in a wide grave, or trench. Contrary to the usual practice of ihe pre- 
sent tribes of red men, the skeletons were laid north and south, i c^.,ivj J 



320 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



several of the most aged Indian chiefs in that vicinity for information re- 
specting these bones — by what tribe they had been deposited, and why 
they had been laid north and south, and not east and west, as they uni- 
formly bury. But, with the usual result as to early Indian traditions, 
they had no information to offer. Chusco, an old Ottawa prophet, since 
dead, remarked that they were probably of the time of the Indian bones 
found in the caves on the island of Michilimackinac. 

In a small plain on the same island, near the above repository, is a long 
abandoned Indian burial-ground, in which the interments are made in the 
ordinary way. This, I understood from the Indians, is of the era of the 
occupation of Old Mackinac, or Peekwutinong, as they continue to call 
it — a place which has been abandoned by both whites and Indians, sol- 
diers and missionaries, about seventy years. I caused excavations to be 
made in these graves, and found their statements to be generally verified 
by the character of the articles deposited with the skeletons ; at least 
they were all of a date posterior to the discovery of this part of the coun- 
try by the French. There were found the oxydated remains of the brass 
mountings of a chief's fusil, corroded fire steels and other steel imple- 
ments, Vermillion, wampum, and other cherished or valued articles. I 
sent a perfect skull, taken from one of these graves, to Dr. Morton, the 
author of " Crania," while he was preparing that work. No Indians 
have resided on this island within the memory of any white man or In- 
dian with whom I have conversed. An aged chief whom I interrogated, 
called Saganosh, who has now been dead some five or six years, told me 
that he was a small boy when the present settlement on the island of 
Michilimackinac was commenced, and the English first took post there, 
and began to remove their cattle, &c., from the old fort on the peninsula, 
and it was about that time that the Indian village of Minnisains, or Isle 
Ronde, was abandoned. It had before formed a link, as it were, in the 
traverse of this part of the lake (Huron) in canoes to old Mackinac. 

The Indians opposed the transfer of the post to the island of Michili- 
mackinac, and threatened the troops who were yet in the field. They 
had no cannon, but the commanding officer sent a vessel to Detroit for 
one. This vessel had a quick trip, dovirn and up, and brought up a 
gun, which was fired the evening she came into the harbor. This pro- 
duced an impression. I have made some inquiries to fix the date of this 
transfer of posts, and think it was at or about the opening of the era of the 
American revolution, at which period the Britir'. garrison did not feel 
itself safe in a mere stockade of timber on the main shore. This stock- 
ade, dignified with the name of a fort, had not been burned on the taking 
of it, by surprise, and the massacre of the English troops by the Indians, 
during Pontiac's war. This massacre, it will be recollected, was in 1763 
—-twelve years before the opening of the American war. 



OP THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



321 



VIII. 

Detroit, Oct. 13lh, 1843. 

The so-cal'ed copper rock of Lake Superior was brought to this place, 
a day or two since, in a vessel from Sault Ste-Marie, having been trans- 
ported from its original locality, on the Ontonagon river, at no small labor 
and expense. It is upwards of twenty-three years since I first visited 
this remarkable specimen of native copper, in the forests of Lake Supe- 
rior. It has been somewhat diminished in size and weight, in the mean- 
time, by visitors and travellers in that remote quarter ; but retains, very 
well, its original character and general features. 

I have just returned from a re-examination of it in a store, in one pf 
the main streets of this city, where it has been deposited by the present 
proprietor, who designs to exhibit it to the curious. Its greatest length 
is four feet six inches ; its greatest width about four feet ; its maximum 
thickness eisrhteen inches. These are rouojh measurements with the rule. 
It is almost entirely composed of malleable copper, and bears striking 
marks of the visits formerly paid to it, in the evidences of portions which 
have from time to time been cut off. There are no scales in the city- 
large enough, or other means of ascertaining its precise weight, and of 
thus terminating the uncertainty arising from the several estimates here- 
tofore made. It has been generally estimated here, since its arrival, to 
weigh between six and seven thousand pounds, or about three and a half 
tons, and is by far the largest known and described specimen of native 
copper on the globe. Rumors of a larger piece in South America are 
apocryphal. 

The acquisition, to the curious and scientific world, of this extraordi- 
nary mass of native metal is at least one of the practical results of the 
copper- mining mania which carried so many adventurers northward, into 
the region of Lake Superior, the past summer (1843). The person who 
has secured this treasure (Mr. J. Eldred) has been absent, on the busi- 
ness, since early in June. He succeeded in removing it from its diluvial 
bed on the banks of the river, by a car and sectional railroad of two links, 
formed of timber. The motive power was a tackle attached to trees, 
which was worked by men, from fourteen to twenty of whom were 
employed upon it. These rails were alternately moved forward, as the 
car passed from the hindmost. 

In this manner the rock was dragged four miles and a half, across a 
rough country, to a curve of the river below its falls, and below the 
junction of its forks, where it was received by a boat, and conveyed to 
the mouth of the river, on the lake shore. At this point it was put on 
board a schooner, and taken to the falls, or Sault Ste-Marie, and thence, 
having been transported across the portage, embarked for Detroit. The 

21 



322 



LETTERS ON TIIK ANTIQUITIES 



entir3 distance to this place is a little within one thousand miles ; tbree 
hundred and twenty of which lie beyond St. Mary's. 

What is to be its future history and disposition remains to be seen. It 
will probably find its way to the museum of the National Ins itute in the 
new patent office at Washington. This would be appropriate, and it is 
stated that the authorities have asserted their ultimate claim to it, probably 
under the 3d article of the treaty of Fond du Lac, of the 5th of August, 
1S26. 

I hf^va no books at hand to refer to the precise time, so far as known, 
when this noted niass of copper first became known to Europeans. 
Probably a hundred and eighty years have elapsed. Marquette, and his 
devoted companion, passed up the shores of Lake Superior about 1668, 
which was several years before the discovery of the Mississippi, by that 
eminent missionary, by the way of the Wisconsin. From the letters of 
D'Ablon at Sault Ste-Marie, it appears to have been known prior to the 
arrival of La Salle. These allusions will be sufficient to show that the 
roipk has a historical notoriety. Apart from this, it is a specimen which 
is, both mineralogically and geologically, well worthy of national pre- 
servation. 

It is clearly a boulder, and bears marks of attrition from the action 
of water, on some parts of its rocky surface as well as fche metallic 
portions. A minute mineralogical examination and description of it are 
required. The adhering rock, of which there is less now than in 1820, 
is apparently serpentine, in some parts steatitic, whereas the copper ores 
of Keweena Point on that lake, are found exclusively in the amygdaloids 
and greenstones of the trap formation. A circular depression of opaque 
crystalline quartz, in the form of a semi-geode, exists in one face of it ; 
other parts of the mass disclose the same mineral. Probably 300 lbs. of 
the metal have been hacked off, or detached by steel chisels, since it has 
been known to the whites, most of this within late years. 



IX. 

Detroit, Oct. 16th, 1843. 
IN the rapid development of the resources and wealth of the West, 
there is no object connected with the navigation of the upper lakes of 
more prospective importance than the improvement of the delta, or flats 
of the St. Clair. It is here that the only practical impediment occurs to 
the passage of heavy shipping, between Buffalo and Chicago. Tiiis 
delta is formed by deposits at the point of discharge of the river St. Clair, 
into Lake St. Clair, and occurs at the estimated distance ol about thirty- 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



323 



six miles above the city. Thni flats are fan -shaped, and spread, I anni 
inciined to think, upward of fifteen miles, on the Ime of their greatest 
expansion. 

There are three principal channels, besides sub-channels, which carry 
a depth of from four to six fathcir^s to the very point of their exit into 
the lake, where there is a bar in each. This bar, as is shown by the 
chart of a survey made by officers Macomb and Warner, of the topogra- 
phical engineers, in 1842, is very similar to the bars at the mouths of the 
upper lake rivers, and appears to be susceptible of removal, or improve- 
ment, by similar means. The north channel carries nine feet of water 
over this bar, the present season, and did the same in 1842, and is the 
one exclusively used by vessels and steamboats. To the latter this tor- 
tuous channel, which is above ten miles farther round than the middle 
channel, presents no impediment, besides the intricacies of the bar, but 
increased distance. 

It is otherwise, and ever must remain so, to vessels propelled by sails. 
Such vessels, coming up with a fair wind, find the bend so acute and 
involved at Point aux ChcneSy at the head of this channel, as to bring the 
wind directly ahead. They are, consequently, compelled to cast anchor, 
and await a change of wind to turn this point. A delay of eight or ten 
days in the upward passage, is not uncommon at this place. Could the 
bar of the middle channel, which is direct, be improved, the saving in 
both time and distance above indicated would be made. This is an 
object of public importance, interesting to all the lake States and Territo- 
ries, and would constitute a subject of useful consideration for Con- 
gress. Every year is adding to the number and size of our lake 
vessels. The rate of increase which doubles our population in a given 
number of years must also increase the lake tonnage, and add new 
motives for the improvement of its navigation. 

Besides the St. Clair delta, I know of no other impediment in the 
channel itself, throughout the great line of straits between Buffalo and 
Chicago, which prudence and good seamanship, and well found vessels, 
may not ordinarily surmount. The rapids at Black Rock, once so formi- 
dable, have long been obviated by the canal dam. The straits of Detroit 
have been well surveyed, and afford a deep, navigable channel at all 
times. The rapids at the head of the river St. Clair, at Port Huron, 
have a sufficiency of water for vessels of the largest class, and only 
require a fair wind for their ascent. 

The straits of Michilimackinac are believed to be on the same water 
level as Lakes Huron and Michigan, and only present the phenomenon 
of a current setting east or west, in compliance with certain laws of the 
reaction of water driven by winds. Such are the slight impediments on 
this extraordinary line of inland lake navigation, which is carried on at 
an averaffc altitude of something less than 600 feet above the tide level 



324 



LETTERS ON THE ANTIQUITIES 



of the Atlantic. When this line of commerce requires to be diverted 
north, through the straits of St. Mary's into Lake Superior, a period rap- 
idly approaching, a short canal of three-fourths of a mile will be required 
at the Sault Ste-Marie, and some excavation made, so as to permit ves- 
sels of heavy tonnage to cross the Lar in Lake George of those straits. 



X. 

DuNDAS, Canada West, Oct. 26th, 1843. 

Fortunately for the study of American antiquities the aborigines 
have, from the earliest period, practised the interment of their arms, 
utensils and ornaments, with the dead, thus furnishino; evidence of the par- 
ticular state of their skill in the arts, at the respective eras of their histor;||j. 
To a people without letters there could scarcely have been a better in- 
dex than such domestic monuments furnish, to determine these eras ; and 
it is hence that the examination of their mounds and burial-places 
assurnes so important a character in the investigation of history. Here- 
tofore these inquiries have been confined to portions of the continent 
south and west of the great chain of lakes and the St. Lawrence ; but 
the advancing settlements in Canada, at this time, are beginning to dis- 
close objects of this kind, and thus enlarge the field of inquiry. 

I had, yesterday, quite an interesting excursion to one of these ancient 
places of sepulture north of the head of Lake Ontario. The locality is 
in the township of Beverly, about twelve miles distant from Dundas. 
The rector of the parish, the Rev. Mr. McMurray, had kindly made 
arrangements for my visit. We set out at a very early hour, on horse- 
back, the air being keen, and the mud and water in the road so com- 
pletely frozen as to bear our horses. We ascended the mountain and 
passed on to the table land, about four miles, to the house of a worthy 
parishioner of Mr. McM., by whom we were kindly welcomed, and after 
giving us a warm breakfast, he took us on, with a stout team, about six 
miles on the Guelph road. Diverging from this, about two miles to the 
left, through a heavy primitive forest, with occasional clearings, we came 
to the spot. It is in the 6th concession of Beverly. 

We were now about seventeen miles, by the road, from the extreme 
head of Lake Ontario, at the town of Hamilton, Burlington Bay ; and on 
one of the main branches of the bright and busy mill-stream of the valley 
of Dundas. As this part of the country is yet encumbered with dense 
and almost unbroken masses of trees, with roads unformed, we had fre- 
quently to inquire our way, and at length stopped on the skirts of an 
elevated beech rido^e, upon wnich the trees stood as large and tkickiy as 



OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



325 



in other parts of the forest. There was nothing at first sight to betoken 
that the hand of man had ever been exercised there. Yet this wooded 
ridge embraced the locality we were in quest of, and the antiquity of 
interments and accum .lations of human bones on this height is to be 
inferred, from their occurrence amidst this forest, and beneath the roots 
of the largest trees. 

It is some five or six years since the discovery was made. It happened 
from the blowing down of a large tree, whose roots laid bare a quantity 
of human bones. Search was then made, and has been renewed at sub-» 
sequent limes, the result of which has been the disclosure of human ske- 
letons in such abundance and massive quantities as to produce astonish- 
ment. This is the characteristic feature. Who the people were, and 
how such an accumulation .should have occurred, are questions which 
have been often asked. And the interest of the scene is by no means 
lessened on observing that the greater part of these bones are deposited, 
not in isolated and single graves as the Indians now bury, but in wide 
and long trenches and rude vaults, in which the skeletons are piled lon- 
gitudinally upon each other. In this respect they resemble a single de- 
posit, mentioned in a prior letter, as occurring on Isle Ronde^ in Lake 
Huron. And they would appear, as is the case with the latter, to be 
re-intermen^s of bodies, after the flesh had decayed, collected from their 
first places of sepulture. 

No one — not the oldest inhabitant— remembers the residence of In- 
dians in this location, nor does there appear to be any tradition on the 
subject. It is a common opinion among the settlers that there must 
have been a great battle fought here, which would account for the accu- 
mulation, but this idea does not appear to be sustained by an examina- 
tion of the skulls, which, so far as I saw, exhibit no marks of violence. 
Besides, there are present the bones and crania of women and children, 
with implements and articles of domestic use, such as are ordinarily depo- 
sited with the dead. The supposition of pestilence, to account for the 
number, is subject to less objection ; yet, if admitted, there is no imagi- 
nable state of Indian population in this quarter, which could have pro- 
duced such heaps. The trenches, so far as examined, extend over the 
en'ire ridge. One of the transverse deposits, I judged, could not include 
le.-^s than fifteen hundx'-ed square feet. The whole of this had been once 
duir over, in s^•arch of curiosities, such as pipes, shells, beads, &c., of 
which a large number were found. Among the evidences of interments 
hc^n" sin the discovery of Canada, were several brass kettles, in one of 
which were five infant skulls. 

Could we determine accurately the time required for the growth of a 
ber*ch, or a black oak, as they are found on these deposits, of sixteen, 
eighteen and twenty inches and two feet in diameter, the date of the 
abanuv.ntnent or completion of the interments might be very nearly fixed. 



326 



ANTIQUITIES OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY. 



The time of the growth of these species is, probably, much less, in the 
temperate latitudes, and in fertile soils, than is commonly supposed. I 
am inclined to think, from a hasty survey, that the whole deposit is the 
result of the slow accumulation of both ordinary interment, and the peri- 
odical deposit or re-interment of exhumed bones brought from contigu- 
ous hunting camps and villages. To this, pestilence has probably added. 
The ridge is said to be the apex or highest point of the table lands, and 
would therefore recommend itself, as a place of general interment, to the 
natives. Bands, who rove from place to place, and often capriciously 
abandon their hunting villages, are averse to leaving their dead in such 
isolated spots. The surrounding country is one which must have afforded 
all the spontaneous means of Indian subsistence, in great abundance. 
The deer and bear, once very numerous, still abound. 

We passed some ancient beaver dams, and were informed that the 
country east and north bears similar evidences of its former occupation by 
the small furred animals. The occurrence of the sugar maple adds 
another element of Indian subsistence. There are certain enigmatical 
walls of earth, in this vicinity, which extend several miles across the 
country, following the leading ridges of land. Accounts vary in repre- 
senting them to extend from five to eight miles. These I did not see, 
but learn that they are about six feet high, and present intervals as if for 
gates. There is little likelihood that these walls were constructed for 
purposes of military defence, remote as they are from the great waters, 
and aside from the great leading war-paths. It is far more probable that 
they were intended to intercept the passage of game, and compel the deer 
to pass through these artificial defiles, where the hunters lay in wait- for 
them. 

Ancient Iroquois tradition, as preserved by Golden, represents this 
section of Canada, extending quite to Three Rivers, as occupied by 
the Adirondacks ; a numerous, fierce, and warlike race, who carried on 
a determined war against the Iroquois. The same race, who were 
marked as speaking a different type of languages, were, at an early day, 
called by the French by the general term of Algonquins. They had 
three chief residences on the Utawas and its sources, and retired north- 
westwardly, by that route, on the increase of the Iroquois power. Who- 
ever the people were who hunted and buried their dead at Beverly, it is 
manifest that they occupied the district at and prior to the era of the dis- 
covery of Canada, and also continued to occupy it, after the French had 
introduced the fur trade into the interior. For we find, in the manufac- 
tured articles buried, the distinctive evidences of both periods. 

The antique bone beads, of which we raised many, in situ, with crania 
and other bones, from beneath the roots of trees, are in every respect 
similar to those found in the Grave Creek mound, which have been irr*- 
oroperly called " Ivory." Amulets of bone and shell, and pipes of fine 



THE LONE LIGHTNING. 



327 



steatite and indurated red clay, are also of this early period, and are 
such as were generally made and used by the ancient inhabitants prior to 
the introduction of European wrought wampum or seawan, and of beads 
of porcelain and glass, and ornamented pipes of coarse pottery. I also 
examined several large marine shells, much corroded and decayed, which 
had been brought, most probably, from the shores of the Atlantic. 

Having made such excavations as limited time and a single spade 
would permit, we retraced our way to Dundas, which we reached after 
nightfall, a little fatigued, but well rewarded in the examination of an 
object which connects, in several particulars, the antiquitieci of Canada 
with those of the United States 



ERA OF THE SETTLEMENT OF DETROIT, AND THE 
STRAITS BETWEEN LAKES ERIE AND HURON. 



The following papers, relative to the early occupancy of these straits, 
were copied from the originals in the public archives in Paris, by Gen. 
Cass, while he exercised the functions of minister at the court of France. 
The first rerates to an act of occupancy made on the banks of a tributary 
of the Detroit river, called St. Deny's, probably the river Aux Canards. 
The second coincides with the period usually assigned as the origin of the 
post of Detroit. They are further valuable, for the notice which is inci- 
dentally taken of the leading tribes, who were then found upon these straits. 

It will be recollected, in perusing these documents, that La Salle had 
passed these straits on his way to the Illinois," in 1679, that is, eight 
years before the act of possession at St. Deny's, and twenty-two years 
before the establishment of the post of Detroit. The upper lakes had 
then, however, been extensively laid open to the enterprise of the mis- 
sionaries, and of the adventurers in the fur trade. Marquette, accom- 
panied by Alloez, had visited the south shore of Lake Superior in 1668, 
and made a map of the region, which was published in the Lettres JEldi- 
fiantes. This zealous and energetic man established the mission of St. 
Ignace at Michilimackinac, about 1669 or 1670, and three years after- 
wards, entered the upper Mississippi, from the Wisconsm. Vincennes, 
on the Wabash, was established in 1710 ;* St. Louis, not till 1763. "j* 

Canada, 7th June, 16S7. 
A renewal of the taking possession of the territory upon the Straits [Dc- 

troit] between Lakes Erie and Huron, by Sieur de la Duranthaye 
OKver Morel, Equerry, Sieur de la Duranthaye, commandant in the name 

of the King of the Territory of the Ottnwas, Miamis, PoiiawatamieSy 

Sioux, and other tribes under the orders of Monsieur, the Marquis de 

Denonsville, Governor General of New France. 

This day, the 7th of June, 16S7, in presence of the Rev'd Father An- 
geleran, Head of the Missions with the Ottawast of Michilimackinac, the 

* Nicollet's Report. t Law's Historical Dis, 

X This is, manifestly, an error. The writer of this act of possession appears to 
have mistaken the bank of the St. Mary's, one of the tributaries of the Miami of the 
Lakes, in the Miami country, for the Sault de Sle- Marie, at the outlet of Lake Su- 
perior. The latter position was occupied, at the earliest dales, to which tradition 
reaches, by a branch of the Al^onquins, to whom the French give the name, from 
the fills of the river at that locality, of SauUeux. They are better known, at this daj 
under the name of Chippewas and Odjibwas. 



SETTLEMENT OP DETROIT, ETC. 



329 



Miatnis of Sault Ste-Marie, the Illinois, and Green Bay, and of the 
Sioux of Mons. de J a Forest, formerly commandant of Fort St. Louis on 
the Illinois, of Mons. de Lisle, our Lieutenant, and of Mons. de Beau- 
vais, Lieutenant of Fort St. Joseph, on the Straits [Detroit] between 
Lakes Huron and Erie. We declare to all whom it may hereafter con- 
cern, that we have come upon the banks of the river St. Deny's, situat 
ed three leagues from Lake Erie, in the Straits of the said Lakes Eri© 
and Huron, on the south of said straits, and also at the entrance on the 
north side, for and in the name of the King, that we re-take possession 
of the said posts, established by Mons. La Salle for facilitating the voy- 
ages he made or caused to be made in vessels from Niagara to Michili- 
mackinac, in the years ****** at each of which we have •aused to 
be set up anew a staff, with the arms of the King, in order to make the 
said renewed taking possession, and ordered several cabins to be erected 
for the accommodation of the French and the Indians of the Shawnees 
and Miamis, who had long been the proprietors of the said territory, 
but who had some time before withdrawn from the same for their greater 
advantage. 

The present act passed in our presence, signed by our hands, and by 
Rev. Father Angeleran, of the society of Jesuits, by MM.Dela Forest, 
De Lisle and De Beauvais, thus in the original : 

Angeleran, Jesuite. 

De la Duranthaye [laGarduer]. 

De Beauvais, and 

De la Forest. 

Compared by me with the original in my hands. Councillor Secretary 
©f the King, and Register in Chief of the Royal Council at Quebec, sub- 
scribed, and each page paraphe. 

Collated at Quebec, this 11th September, 1712. 

[Signed] , Byon et Vandreuil. 

Memoir of Monsieur de la Mothe Cadillac, relative to the establishment of 
Detroit, addressed to the Minister of Marine, \Ath September, 1704 : 

La Mothe Cadillac renders an account of his conduct relative to the esta- 
blishment of Detroit, by questions and answers. It is the Minister who 
questions, and La Mothe who answers : 

Q. Was it not in 1699 that you proposed to me an establishment in 
the Straits which separate Lake Erie from Lake Huron ? 
A. Yes, my Lord. 

Q. What were the motives which induced you to wish to fortify a 
place there, and make an establishment } 

A. 1 had several. The first was to make a strong post, which should 
not be subject to the revolutions of other posts, by fixing there a number 



330 



THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. 



of French and Savages, in order to curb the Iroquois, who had constant 
1y annoyed our colonies and hindered their prosperity. 

Q. At what time did you leave Quebec to go to Detroit ? 

A. On the 8th of March, 1701. I reached Montreal the 12th, 
when we were obliged to make a change. * * * * I left La Chine the 6th 
-of June with fifty soldiers and fifty Canadians — Messrs. De Fonty, Cap-- 
tain, Duque and Chacornach, Lieutenants. I was ordered to pass by the 
Grand River of the Ottawas, notwithstanding my remonstrances. 1 
arrived at Detroit the 24th July and fortified myself there immediately ; 
had the necessary huts made, and cleared up the grounds, preparatory to 
its being sowed in the autumn. 

Compare these data, from the highest sources, with the Indian tradi- 
tion of the first arrival of the French, in the upper lakes, recorded at 
page 107, Oneota, No. 2, 



THE CHOCTAW INDIANS. 
The Vicksburg Sentinel of the 18th ult., referring to this tribe of 
Indians, has the following : — " The last remnant of this once powerful 
tribe are now crossing our ferry on their way to their new homes in the 
far West. To one who, like the writer, has been familiar to their bronze 
inexpressive faces from infancy, it brings associations of peculiar sadness 
to see them bidding here a last farewell perhaps to the old hills which 
gave birth, and are doubtless equally dear to him and them alike. The 
first playmates of our infancy were the young Choctaw boys of the then 
woods of Warren county. Their language was once scarcely less fami- 
liar to us than our mother- English. We know, we think, the character 
of the Choctaw well. We knew many of their present stalwart braves 
in those daj's of early life when the Indian and white alike forget dis- 
guise, but in the unchecked exuberance of youthful feeling show the real 
character that policy and habit may afterwards so much conceal ; and 
we know that, under the stolid stoic look he assumes, there is burning in 
the Indian's nature a heart of fire and feeling, and an all-observing keen- 
ness of apprehension, that marks and remembers everything that occurs, 
and every insult he receives. Cunni-at a hah ! They are going away ! 
With a visible reluctance which nothing has overcome but the stern 
necessity they feel impelling them, they have looked their last on the 
graves of their sires — the scenes of their youth — and have taken up their 
slow toilsome march, with their household gods among thern, to their 
new home in a strange land. They leave names to many of our rivers, 
towns and counties ; and so long as our State remains, the Choctaws, 
who once owned most of her soil, will be remembered." 



A SYNOPSIS OF CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY 
AT NORTH AMERICA. 



FIRST VOYAGE. 

Forty-two years had elapsed from the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus, when Jacques Cartier prepared to share in the maratime enterprise 
of the age, by visiting the coast. Cartier was a native of Normandy, and 
sailed from the port of St. Malo, in France, on the 20th April, 1534. It 
will be recollected that the conquest of Mexico had been completed 13 
years previous. Cartier had two small vessels of 60 tons burden and 61 
men each. The crews took an oath, before sailing, " to behave them- 
selves truly and faithfully in the service of the most christian king," Fran- 
cis I. After an^^nusually prosperous voyage of 20 days, he made cape 
"Buona Vista" in Newfoundland, which he states to be in north latitude, 
48*^ 30'. Here meeting with ice, he made the haven of St. Catherine's, 
where he was detained ten days. This coast had now been known since 
the voyage of Cabot, in 1497, and had been frequently resorted to, by 
fishing vessels. Jean Denis, a native of Rouen, one of these fishermen, 
is said to have published the first chart of it, in 1506. Two years after 
wards, Thomas Aubert, brought the first natives from Newfoundland to 
Paris, and this is the era, 1508, commonly assigned as the discovery of 
Canada. The St. Lawrence remained, however, undiscovered, nor does 
it appear that any thing was known, beyond a general and vague know- 
ledge of the coast, and its islands. The idea was yet entertained, indeed, 
it will be seen by subsequent facts, that America was an island, and that a 
passage to the Asiatic continent, existed in these latitudes. 

On the 21st May, Cartier continued his vo3''age, sailing " north and by 
east" from cape Buona Vista, and reached the Isle of Birds, so called 
from the unusual abundance of sea fowl found there, of the young of 
which the men filled two boats, so that" in the quaint language of the 
journal, "besides them which we did eat fresh, ever)^ ship did powder 
and salt five or six barrels." He also observed the god wit, and a larger 
and vicious bird, which they named margaulx. While at this island, 
they descried a polar bear, which, in their presence leapt into the sea, and 

331 



332 



CARTIER^S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



thus escaped. On their subsequent passage to the main land, they 
again encountered, as they supposed, the same animal swimming towards 
land. They manned their boats, and " by main strength overtook her, 
whose flesh was as good to be eaten, as the flesh of a calf two years 
old." This bear is described to be, "as large as a cow, and as white as a 
swan." 

On the 27th he reached *he harbour of " Carpunt" in the bay Les 
Cbastaux," latitude 51°, where he was constrained to lay by, on account 
of the accumulation of ice, till the 9th of June. The narrator of the voy- 
age takes this occasion to describe certain paits of the coast and waters of 
Newfoundland, the island of St. Catherine, Blanc Sablon, Brest, the Isle 
of Birds, and a numerous group of Islands called the Islets. But 
these memoranda are not connected with any observations or discoveries 
of importance. Speaking of Bird and Brest Islands, he says, they afford 
"great store of godwits, and crows, with red beaks and red feet," who 
" make their nests in holes underground, even as conies." Near this lo- 
cality "there is great fishing." 

On the 10th June, he entered a port in the newly named island of 
Brest, to procure wood and water. Meantime, boats were dispatched to 
explore among the islands, which were found so numerous " that it was not 
possible they might be told, for they continued about 10 leagues beyond 
the said port." The explorers slept on an island. The next day they 
continued their discoveries along the coast, and having passed the islands, 
found a haven, which they named St. Anthony: one or two leagues be- 
yond, they found a small river named St. Servansport, and here set up a 
cross. About three leagues further, they discovered another river, of 
larger size, in which they found salmon, and bestowed upon it the name 
of St. Jacques. 

While in the latter position, they descried a ship from Rochelle, on a 
fishing voyage, and rowing out in their boats, directed it to a port near at 
hand, in what is called " Jaques Cartier's Sound," " which," adds the nar- 
rator, " I take to be one of the best, in all the world." The face of the ' 
country they examined, is, however, of the most sterile and forbiddingchar- 
acter, being little besides " stones and wild crags, and a place fit for wild 
beasts, for in all the North Island," he continues, "I did not see a cart load 
of good earth, yet went I on shore, in many places, and in the Island 
of White Sand, (Blanc Sablon,) there is nothing else but moss and small 
thorns, scattered here and there, withered and dry. To be short, I be- 
lieve that this was the land that God allotted to Cain." 

Immediately following this, we have the first description of the natives. 
The men are described as being "of an inditferent good stature and big- 
ness, but wild and unruly. They wear their hair tied on the top, like a 
wreath of hay, and put a wooden pin within it, or any other such thing in- 
stead of a nail, and withthem, they bind certain birds feathers. They are 



cartier's voyages of discovery. 



333 



clothed with beast skins, as well the men as women, but that the womfn go 
somewhat straiter and closer in their gurments, than the men do, with their 
waists girded. They paint themselves with certain roan colours; their 
boats are made of the bark of birch trees, with the which they fish, and take 
great store of seals. And as far as we couH unJerstand, since our coming 
thither, that is not their habitation, but they come fiom the main land, out of 
hotter* countries to catch the said seals, and other necessaries for their liv- 
ing." 

From this exploratory trip, the boats returned to their newly named har- 
bour of Brest, on the 13th. On the 14th, being the Sabbath, service was 
read, and the next day Cartier continued his voyage, steering southerly, 
along the coast, which still wore a most barren and cheerless aspect. 
Much of this part of the narrative is taken up with distances and sound- 
ings, and the naming of capes and islands of very little interest at the 
present day. They saw a few huts upon the cliffs on the 18th, and 
named this part of the coast " Les Granges," but did not stop to form any 
acquaintance with their tenants. Cape Royal was reached and named 
the day prior, and is said to be the "greatest fishery of cods there possibly 
may be, for in less than an hour we took a hundred of them." On the 
24th they discovered the island of St. John. They saw myriads of birds 
upon the group of islands named " Margaulx," five leagues westward 
of which they discovered a large, fertile, and well-timbered island, to 
which the name of "Brion" was given. The contrast presented by the 
soil and productions of this island, compared with the bleak and waste 
shores they had before encountered, excited their warm admiration ; and 
with the aid of this excitement, they here saw " wild corn," peas, goose- 
berries, strawberries, damask roses, and parsley, "with other sweet and 
pleasant herbs " They here also saw the walrus, bear, and wolf 

Very little is to be gleaned from the subsequent parts of the voyage, 
until they reached the gulf of St. Lawrence. Mists, head winds, barren 
rocks, sandy shores, storms and sunshine, akernaterly make up the land- 
scape presented to view. Much caution was evinced in standing off 
and on an iron bound coast, and the boats were often employed in ex- 
ploring along the main land. While thus employed near a shallow 
stream, called the " River of Boats," they saw natives crossing the stream 
in their canoes, but the wind coming to blow on shore, thev were com- 
pelled to retire to their vessels, without opening any communication with 
them. On the following day, while the boats were traversinq- the coast, 
they saw a native running along shore after them, who made signs as they 
supposed, directing them to return towards the cape they had left. But 
as soon as the boat turned he fled. They landed, however, and putting a 

*I underscore the word " hotter," to denote the prevalent theory. They were search- 
infr for China or the East India. 



334 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



knif(3 and a woollen girdle on a staff, as a good-will offering, returned to 
their vessels. 

The character of this part of the Newfoundland coast, impressed them as 
being greatly superior to the portions which they had previously seen, 
hoth in soil and temperature. In addition to the productions found at 
Brion's Island, they noticed cedars, pines, white elm, ash, willow, and what 
are denominated " ewe-trees." Among the feathered tribes they mention 
the "thrush and stock-dove." By the latter term the passenger pigeon is 
doubtless meant. The " wild corn" here again mentioned, is said to be 
" like unto rye," from which it may be inferred that it was the zizania, 
although the circumstance of its being an equatic plant is not mentioned. 

In running along the coast Cartier appears to have been engrossed with 
the idea, so prevalent among the mariners of that era, of finding a pas- 
sage to India, and it was probably on this account that he made such a 
scrupulous examination of every inlet and bay, and the productions of the 
shores. Wherever the latter offered anything favourable, there was a 
strong disposition to admiration, and to make appearances correspond with 
the theory. It must be recollected that Hudson, seventy-five years later, 
in sailing up the North River, had similar notions. Hence the application 
of several improper terms to the vegetable and animal productions of the 
latitudes, and the constant expectation of beholding trees bending vvith 
fruits and spices, " goodly trees" and "very sweet and pleasant herbs." 
That the barren and frigid shores of Labrador, and the northern parts of 
Newfoundland, should have been characterised as a region subject to the 
divine curse, is not calculated to excite so much surprise, as the disposition 
with every considerable change of soil and verdure, to convert it into a 
land of oriental fruitfulness. It docs not appear to have'been sufficiently 
borne in mind, that the increased verdure and temperature, were, in a great 
measure, owing to the advancing state of the season. He came on this 
coast on the 10th of May, and it was now July. It is now very well 
known that the summers in high northern latitudes, although short, are at- 
tended with a high degree of heat. 

On the 3d of July Cartier entered the gulf to which the name of JSt, 
Lawrence has since been applied, the centre of which he states to be in 
latitude 47° 30'. On the 4th he proceeded up the bay to a creek called 
St. Martin, near bay De Chaleur, where he was detained by stress of wea- 
ther eight days. While thus detained, one of the ship's boats was sent 
a-head to explore. They went 7 or 8 leagues to a cape of the bay, where 
they descried two parties of Indians, "in about 40 or 50 canoes," crossing 
the channel. One of the parties landed and beckoned them to follow 
their example, "making a great noise" and showing "certain skins upon 
pieces of wood" — i. e. fresh stretched skins. Fearing their numbers, the 
seamen kept aloof The Indians prepared to follow them, in two canoes, 
in which movement they were joined by five canoes of the other party, 



cartier's voyagrs of discovery. 



335 



•'who were comina from the sea side." They approached in a f, iendly 
manner, "dancing- and making- many signs of joy, saying in their long-iie 
Nape londamen assuath."* The seamen, however, suspected their in- 
tentions, and finding it impossible to ekide them by flight, two shots were 
discharged among them, by which they were so terrified, that they fled 
precipitately ashore, '-making a great noise." After pausing awhile, thn 
" wild men" however, re-embarked, and renewed the pursuit, but after 
coming alongside, they w^ere frightened back by the strokes of twc 
lances, which so disconcerted them that they fled in haste, and made no 
•further attempt to follow. 

This appears to have been the first rencontre of the ship's crew with 
the natives On the following day, an interview was brought on, by the 
approach of said "wild men" in nine canoes, which is thus described. 
" We heing advertised of their coming, went to the point where they were 
with our boats; but so soon as they saw us they began to flee, making 
signs that they came to trafi'ic with us, showing us such skins as they 
clothed themselves withal, which are of small value. We likewise made 
Bigns unto them, that we wished them no evil, and in sign thereof, two of 
our men ventured to go on land to them, and carry them knives, with 
other iron wares, and a red hat to give unto their captain. Which, when 
;hey saw, they also came on land, and brought some of their skins, and so 
began to deal with us, seeming to be very glad to have our iron wares and 
other things, dancing, with many other ceremonies, as with their hands to 
cast sea water on their heads. They gave us v^'hatever they had, not 
keeping any thing, so that they were constrained to go back again naked, 
and made us signs, that the next day, they would come again and bring 
more skins with them." 

Observing a spacious bay extending beyond the cape, where this inter- 
course had been opened, and the wind proving adverse to the vessels quit- 
ting their harbour, Cartier despatched his boats to examine it, under an ex- 
pectation that it might aflford the desired passage — for it is at all times to 
be observed that he was diligently seeking the long sought passage to the 
Indies. While engaged in this examination, his men discovered "the 
smokes and fires" of" wild men" (the teim constantly used in the narrative 
to designate the natives.) These smokes were upon a small luke, communi- 
cating with the bay. An amiable interview took place, the natives presenting 
cooked seal, and the French making a suitable return " in hatchets, knives 
and beads.'' After these preliminaries, which were conducted with a good 
deal of caution, by deputies from both sides, the body of the men ap- 
proached in their canoes, for the purpose of traflicking, leaving most of 

* In Mr. Gallatin's comparative vocabulary, " Napew" means man, in the Shcsh- 
Btapoosh or Labrador. It is therefore fair to conclude that these were a party of Shesh- 
atapoosh Indians, whose language proves them to be of the kindred of the great Algoiw 
quiu ^'amily. 



336 



cartier's voyages of discovery. 



their families behind. About 300 men women and children were esti- 
mated to have been seen at this place. They evinced their friendship by 
singing and dancing, and by rubbing their hands upon the arras of their 
European visitors, then lilting them up towards the heavens. An opinion, 
is expressed that these people, (who were in the position assigned to the 
Micmacs in 1600 in Mr. Gallatin's ethnological map,) might very easily 
be converted to Christianity. " They go," says the narrator, " from place 
to place. They live only by fishing. They have an ordinary time to fish 
for their provisions. The country is hotter than the country of Spain, and 
the fairest that can possibly be found, altogether smooth and level.'' To 
the productions before noticed, as existing on Brion's island &c., and which 
were likewise found here, he adds, " white and red roses, with many other 
flowers of very sweet and pleasant smell." " There be also," says the 
journalist, "many goodly meadows, full of grass, and lakes, wherein 
plenty of salmon be." The natives called a hatchet cochi^ and a knife 
bacon* It was now near the middle of July, and the degree of heat ex- 
perienced on the excursion induced Cartier to name the inlet, Baie du 
Chaleur — a name it still retains. 

On the 12th of July Cartier left his moorings at St. Martin's creek, and 
proceeded up the gulf, but encountering bad weather he was forced into a 
bay, which appears to have been Gaspe, where one of the vessels lost her 
anchor. They were forced to take shelter in a river of that bay, and 
there detained thirteen days. In the mean while they opened an inter- 
course with the natives, who were found in great numbers engaged in 
fishing for makerel. Forty canoes, and 200 men women and children 
were estimated to have been seen, during their detention. Presents of 
" knives, combs, beads of glass, and other trifles of small value," were 
made to them, for which they expressed great thankfulness, lifting up their 
hands, and dancing and singing. 

These Gaspe Indians are represented as differing, both in nature and 
language, from those before mentioned They presented a picture of 
abject poverty, were partially clothed in "old skins," and lived without the 
use of tents. They may, says the journalist, "very well and truly be 
called wild^ because there is no poorer people in the world, for I think^ 
all they had together, besides their boats and nets, was not worth five 
sous," They shaved their heads, except a tuft at the crown ; sheltered 
themselves at night under their canoes on the bare ground, and ate their 
provisions very partially cooked. They were wholly without the use of 
salt, and "ate nothing that had any taste of salt." On Cartier's first land- 
ing among them, the men expressed their joy, as those at bay Chaleur had 
done, by singing and dancing. , But they had caused air their women, 

* Koshee and Bahkon. These are not the terms for a hatchet and a knife in the Mic- 
mac, nor in the old Algonquin, nor in the Wyandot. 



CARTIER'S VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



337 



except 2 or 3, to flee into the woods By giving a comb and a tin bell to 
each of the women who had ventured to remain, the avarice of the men was 
excited, and they quickly caused their women, to the number of about 20^ 
\o sally from the woods, to each of whom the same present was made. 
They caressed Cartier by touching and rubbing him with their hands; 
Ihey also sung and danced. Their nets were made of a species of indi- 
genous hemp ; they possessed also, a kind of " millet" called " kapaige," 
beans called " Sahu," and nuts called " Cahehya." If any thing was 
exhibited, which they did not know, or understand, they shook their 
heads saying " Nohda." It is added that they never come to the sea, ex- 
cept in fishing time, which, we may remark, was probably the cause of 
vheir having no lodges, or much other property about them. They would 
jiaturally wish to disencumber their canoes as much as possible, in these 
summer excursions, that they might freight them back with dried fish. 
The language spoken by these Gaspe Indians is manifestly of the Iroquois 
type. "Cahehya," is. with a slight difference, the term for fruit, in the 
Oneida. 

On the 24th July, Cartier set up a cross thirty feet high, inscribed, 
" Vive le Roy de France.''^ The natives who were present at this cere- 
mony, seem, on a little reflection, to have conceived the true intent of it, 
and their chief complained of it, in a " long oration," giving them to under- 
stand "that the country was his, and that we should not set up any cross, 
without his leave." Having quieted the old chief's fears, and made use 
of a little duplicity, to get him to come alongside, they seized two of the na- 
tives for the purpose of taking them to France, and on the next day set sail, 
up the gulf A fter making some further examinations of the gulf, and being 
foiled in an attempt to enter the mouth of a river, Cartier turned his thoughts 
on a return. He was alarmed by the furious tides setting out of the St. 
Lawrence; the weather was becommg tempestuous, and under these cir- 
cumstances he assembled his captains and principal men, "to put the ques- 
tion as to the expediency of continuing the voyage." They advised him 
to this effeti . Tnat. considering that easterly winds began to prevail — " that 
there was nothing to be gotten" — that, the impetuosity of the tides was such 
" That they did but fall," and that storms and tempests began to reign — and 
moreover, that they must either promptly return home, or else remain where 
they were till spring, it was expedient to return. With this counsel he 
complied. No time was lost in retracing their outward track, along tho 
Newfoundland coast. They reached the port of " White Sands," on the 
9th of August. On the 15th, being " the feast of the Assumption of Our 
Lady," after service, Cartier took his departure from the coast. He en- 
countered a heavy storm, of three days continuance, " about the middle of 
the sea," and reached the port of St. Malo, on the 5th of September, after an 
absence of four months and sixteen days. 

7'his comprises the substance of the first voyage of discovery, of which 

22 



338 



CARTIEll's VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



we have knowledge, ever made within the waters of the St. Lawrence. 
The Newfoandland and Nova Scotia coasts, together with the shores of 
the Noith Atlantic generally, had heen discovered by Cabot, 37 years before. 
The banks of Newfoundland had been resorted to, as is known pretty freely 
for the purpose of fishing, for 26 years of this period, and the natives had 
been at least, in one instance, taken to Europe. But the existence of the 
St. Lawrence appears not to have been known. Cartier, is, therefore, the 
true discoverer of Canada, although he was not its founder. The latter hon- 
our was reserved for another, h: the two succeeding voyages made by Car- 
tier, of which it is proposed to make a synopsis, his title as a discoverer, is 
still more fully established. 

SECOND VOYAGE. 

A. D. 1535, May, 19th, Cartier left St. Male, on his second voyage of 
discovery, " to the islands of Canada, Hochelaga, and Saguenay," with 
three ships — the " Hermina" of 100 to 120 tons — the "little Hermina" 
of 60 tons, and the " Hermerillon" of 40 tons, commanded by separate 
masters, acting under his orders as " General." He was accompanied by 
several gentlemen and adventurers, among whom the narrator of the 
voyage mentions, "Master Claudius de Pont Briand, son to the Lord of 
Montceuell, and cup-bearer to the Dauphin of France ; Charles of Pome- 
rais, and John Powlet." He suffered a severe gale on the outward 
passage, in which the ships parted company. Cartier reached the coast 
of Newfoundland on the 7th July, and was not rejoined by the other ves- 
sels till the 26th, on which day the missing vessels entered "the port of 
White Sands" in the baj/ des Chasteaux, the place previously designated 
for their general rendezvous. 

On the 27th he continued his voyage along the coast, keepmg in 
sight of land, and consequently running great risks, from the numerous 
shoals he encountered in seeking out anchorages. Many of the islands 
and headlands named in the previous voyage, were obsei-ved, and names 
were bestowed upon others, which had before escaped notice. Soundings 
and courses and distances, are detailed with the tedious prolixity, and prO" 
bably, with the uncertainty of the era. Nothing of importance occurred 
until the 8th of August, when Cartier entered the gulf, where he had pre- 
viously encountered such storms, and which he now named St. Law- 
RENCK. From thence on the 12th, he pursued his voyage westward 
" about 25 leagues" to a cape named " Assumption," which appears to 
have been part of the Nova Scotia coast. It is quite evident that the idea 
of a continuous continent was not entertained by Cartier at this period, 
although the Cabots had discovered and run down the coast nearly 40 
years before (149".) He constantly speaks of his discoveries as "islands" 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



839 



and the great object of anxiety seems to have been, to find the long 
sought "passage' so often mentioned in his journals. 

The two natives whom he had seized on the previous voyage, now told 
him, that cape Assumption was a part of the "southern coast," or mainy 
— that there was an island north of the passage to " Honguedo" where 
they had been taken the year before, and that " two days journey from 
the said cape, and island, began the kingdom of Saguenay." 

In consequence of this information, and a wish to revisit "the land he 
had before espied," Cartier turned his course towards the north, and re- 
entcrincr the Gulf of St. Lawrence, came to the entrance of the river, 
which is stated to be " about thirty leagues" across. Here, the two na- 
tives told him, was the commencement of " Saguenay," — that it was an 
inhabited country, and produced " red copper." They further informed 
him, that this was the mouth of the " great river of Hochelaga, and ready 
way to Canada," — that it narrowed in the ascent towards Canada, the 
waters becoming fresh; that its sources were so remote that they had 
never heard of any man who had visited them, and that boats would be 
required to complete the ascent. 

This information appears to have operated as a disappointment on Car- 
tier, and he determined to explore northward from the gulf, " because he 
would know" to use the quaint language of the narrator, " if between the 
lands towards the north any passage might be discovered." No such 
passage could however be found, and after devoting ten or twelve days to 
re-examinations of points and islands before but imperfectly discovered, or 
to the discovery of others, he returned to the river St. Lawrence, which 
he began to ascend : and on the 1st Sept. he came to the entrance of the 
Saguenay river, which is described as a bold and deep stream, entering 
the St. Lawrence, between bare, precipitous rocks, crowned with trees. 
Here they encountered four canoes of Indians, who evinced their charac- 
teristic caution and shyness. On being hailed, however, by the two cap- 
tive natives, who disclosed to them, their names, they came along side. 
But the journal records no further particulars of this interview. They 
proceeded up the river next day. The tides are noticed as being " very 
swift and dangerous," and the "current" is described as equalling that at 
Bordeaux. Many tortoises were seen at the "Isle of Condres," and a 
species offish, which are described of equalling a porpoise in size, with a 
head resembling a greyhound's, and of unspotted whiteness. It may be 
vague to offer a conjecture from such a description as to the species of 
fish intended, but as the natives reported them to be " very savoury and 
good to be eaten," it may be inferred, that the sturgeon w^as meant. 
Many of the descriptions of the animal productions of America, given by 
Cartier, appear to be drawn up, rather with a view to excite wonder, iu 
an age when wonders were both industriously sought, and readily credited, 
than to convey any accurate idea of their true characters and properties* 



340 



/ 

CARTIERS VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



On the 7th of Sept. they leached the island now called Oi leans, where, 
it is said ''the countiy of Caiada begit.neih." 1 his island is st.ited to be 
ten leagues long, and five broad, beiijg intiabited by natives wiiO lived ex- 
clusively by fibhing. Having atichond his vessels in the channel, he 
made a I'oi mal lariding in his boats, taking the two captivts, Domaigaia, 
and Taignoagny, as interpreteis. The natives at fijst fled, but hearing 
themselves addressed in their own tongue, and finding the captives to be 
their own countiymen, friendly intercourse at once ensued. Ihe natives 
evinced their joy by dancing, and "showing many sorts of ceremonies." 
They presented Cartier, '-eels and other sorts of fishes, with two or three 
burdens of great millet, wherewith they make their bread, and many 
great mush melloiis." This " great millet" appears to have been zea 
mais, which is here for the fiist time noticed, amongst the northern In- 
dians. The report of the arrival of their lost countrymen D. and T. 
seemed to have put all the surrounding villages in commotion, and Car- 
tier found himself thronged with visitors, to whom he gave presents, 
trifling in themselves, but of much value in the eyes of the Indians. The 
utmost harmony and good feeling appear to have prevailed. 

On the following day Donnacona, who is couiteously styled the I^rdof 
Agouhanna, visited the ships, with 12 boats, or canoes — ten of which how- 
ever, he directed to stay at a distance, and with the other two and 16 men 
approached the vessels. A friendly conference ensued. The chief, when 
he drew near the headmost vessel began "to frame a long oration, 
moving all his body and members after a strange fashion." When he 
reached Cartier's ship, the captives entered into fiee discourse with him, 
imparting the observations they had made in France, and the kind treat- 
ment they had experienced. At this recital Donnacona was so much 
pleased, that he desired Cartier to reach him his arm, that he might 
kiss it. He not only kissed it, but " laid it about his neck, for so they use 
to do, when they will make much of one." Cartier then entered into the 
chief's boat, " causing bread and wine to be brought," and after eating 
and drinking with him and his followers, the interview terminated in 
mutual satisfaction. 

The advanced state of the season, and the determination to visit Hoche- 
laga (now Montreal) before the ice formed, admonished Cartier to look 
for a harbour, which would afl^ora a safe anchorage for his largest ves- 
sels during the winter. He selected " a little river and haven," opposite 
the head of the island, to which he gave the name of "Santa Croix," 
being in the vicinity of Donnacona's village. No time was lost in bring- 
ing up and mooring the vessels, and driving piles into the harbour for 
their belter security. While engaged in this work, further acquaintance 
was made with the natives, and their opinion of Cartier's visit, began to 
manifest itself, by which it appeared, that the friendship established with 
him was rather appai"ent, than real. About this time Taignoagny and 



cartier's voyages of discovery. 



341 



Domaigaia were suffered to return to their villages, and it soon became 
apparent, that the knowledge they had acquired of the French, would be 
wielded to put their countrymen on their guard against encroachments 
upon their soil. Taignoagny, in particular, rendered himself obnoxious 
to the French, by his sullen and altered conduct, and the activity he after- 
wards manifested in thwarting Cartier's design of visiting the island of 
Hochelaga, although it appears, he had, previous to leaving the vessels, 
promised to serve as a guide on the expedition. 

Donnacona himself opposed the projected visit, by argument, by artifice, 
and finally, by the extraordinary resource of human gifts. His aversion 
to it first evinced itself by keeping aloof, and adopting a shy and suspicious 
demeanour. Cartier finding this chief, with T. and D. and a numerous 
retinue in his vicinity, " under a point or nook of land," ordered a part of 
his men to follow him, and suddenly presented himself in the midst of 
them. After mutual salutations, Taignoagny got up and addressed him, 
in behalf of Donnacona, complaining that they came armed, to which 
Cartier replied that, it was the custom of his country, and a custom he 
could not dispense with. The bustle and heat of the introduction being 
over, Cartier played the part of a politic diplomatist, and was met by Don- 
nacona and his counsellors on his own grounds, and the whole interview, 
though it resulted in what is called " a marvellous steadfast league of 
friendship" can only be looked upon, as a strife, in which it is the object 
of both parties to observe the most profound dissimulation. This 
"league" was ratified by the natives, with three loud cries, "a most hor- 
rible thing to hear" says the narrator. 

On the very next day Donnacona, attended with T. and D. and 10 or 
12 "of the chiefest of the country, with more than 500 persons, men, wo- 
lAen and children," came on board of the vessels, at their moorings, to 
protest against the intended voyage of exploration. Taignoagny opened 
the conference, by saying to Cartier, that Donnacona regretted his design 
of visiting Hochelaga, and had forbid any of his people from accompany- 
ing him, because the river itself " was of no importance." Cartier replied 
that his decision was made, and urged the speaker to go with him, as he 
had promised, offering to make the voyage every way advantageous to 
him. A prompt refusal, on the part of T. and the sudden withdrawal of 
the whole collected multitude, terminated this interview. 

On the next day Donnacona re-appeared with all his followers, bring- 
ing presents of fish, singing and dancing. He then caused all his people 
10 pass to one side, and drawing a circle in the sand, requested Cartier 
and his followers, to enter into it. This arrangement concluded, he be- 
gan an address, " holding in one of his hands a maiden child ten or 
twelve years old," whom he presented to Cartier, the multitude at 
the same time g-iving three shouts. He then brought forward two male 
children, separately, presenting them in the same manner, and his people 



342 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



at each presentation, expressing their assent by shouts. Taignoagny, who 
by this time had drawn upon himself the epithet of "crafty knave" told 
the "captain" (as Cartier is all along termed,) that one of the childrea 
was his own brother, and that the girl was a daughter of Donnacona's 
*own sister," and that this presentation, was made to him, solely with a 
view of dissuading him from his expedition. Cartier persisted in saying, 
that his mind was made up, and could not be altered. Here, Domai- 
gaia interposed, and said, that the children were offered as "a sign and 
token of good will and security," and not with any specific purpose of 
dissuading him from the expedition. High words passed between the two 
liberated captives, from which it was evident that one, or the other, had 
either misconceived or misrepresented the object of the gift. Cartier how- 
ever, took the children, and gave Donnacona "two swords and two cop- 
per basins," for which he returned thanks, and " commanded all his peo- 
ple to sing and dance," and requested the captain to cause a piece of 
artillery to be discharged for his gratification Cartier readily improved 
this hint, to show them the destructive effects of European artillery, 
and at a signal, ordered twelve pieces, charged with ball, to be fired into the 
contiguous forest, by which they were so astounded that they " put them- 
selves to flight, howling, crying, and shrieking, so that it seemed hell 
was broke loose." 

""These attempts to frustrate the purposed voyage, having failed, the na- 
tives endeavoured to put the captain's credulity to the test, and operate 
upon his fears. For this purpose three natives were disguised to play the 
part of " devils," wrapped in skins, besmeared, and provided with horns. 
Thus equipped they took advantage of the tide, to drop down along side 
Cartier's vessels, uttering words of unintelligible import as they passed, 
but keeping their faces steadfastly directed toward the wood. At the 
same time Donnacona, and his people rushed out of the wood to the 
shore, — attracting the attention of the ships' crews in various waj^s, and 
finally seized the mock "devils" at the moment of their landing, and 
carried them into the woods, where their revelations were uttered. 

The result of this clumsy trick, was announced by Taignoagny and 
Domaigaia, who said, that their god " Cudruaigny had spoken in Hoche- 
laga" — importing ill tidings to the French, and that he had sent these 
three men to inform them that, there was so much ice and snow in the 
country, that whoever entered it, must die. After some interrogatives 
pro and con, in the course of which the power of " his Priests" was oddly 
contrasted by the French commander with that of the devils," both 
Taignoagny and Domaigaia coincided in finally declaring that Donna- 
cona, " would by no means permit that any of them should go with him 
to Hochelaga," unless he would leave hostages in his hands. 

All these artifices appear to have had but little efl^ect on Cartier's plan. 
He told his freed interpreters, that if they would not go willingly, they 



cartier's voyages of discovery. 



343 



might slay, and he would prosecute the voyage without thfm. Accord- 
ingly, having finished mooring his vessels, on the 19th September he set 
out to explore the upper portions of the river, taking hio smallest vessel 
and two boats with fifty mariners, and the supernumerary gentlemen of his 
party. A voyage of ten days brought him to an expansion of the river, 
which he named the lake of Angolesme, but which is now known under 
the name of St. Peter. Here the shallowness of the water, and rapidity 
of the currejit above, induced him to leave the " Hermerillon," and he 
proceeded with the two boats and twenty-eight armed men. The fertility 
of the shore, the beauty and luxuriance of the forest trees, mantled as 
they often were, with the vine loaded with clusters of grapes, the variety 
of water fowl, and above all the friendly treatment they every where re- 
ceived from the Indians, excited unmingled admiration. One of the 
chiefs whom they encountered presented Cartier with two children, his 
son and daughter, the latter of whom, being 7 or 8 years old, he accepted. 
On another occasion he was carried ashore by one of a party of hunters, 
as " lightly and easily as if he had been a child of five years old." 
Presents of fish were made, at every point, where he came in contact 
with the natives, who seemed to vie with each other in acts of hospitality. 

These marks of welcome and respect continued to be manifested during 
the remainder of the journey to Hochelaga, where he arrived on the 2d 
of October. A mukitude of both sexes and all ages had collected on the 
shore to witness his approach, and welcome his arrival. They expressed 
their joy by dancing, "clustering about us, making much of us, bringing 
their young children in their arms only to have our captain and his com- 
pany touch them." Cartier landed, and spent half an hour in receiving 
their caresses, and distributed tin beads to the women, and knives tp some 
of the men, and then " retured to the boats to supper." The natives 
built large fires on the beach, and continued dancing, and merry making 
all night, frequently exclaiming Aguiaze, which is said to signify " mirth 
and safety." 

Early the next morning Cartier having " very gorgeously attired him- 
self," and taking 20 mariners, with his officers and supernumeraries, 
landed for the purpose of visiting the town, taking some of the natives for 
guides. After following a well beaten path, leading through an oak 
forest, for four or five miles, he was met by a chief, accompanied by a re- 
tinue, sent out to meet him, who by signs gave him to understand, that 
he was desired to rest at that spot, where a fire had been kindled, a piece 
of (tivility, which it may be supposed, was something more than an empty 
compliment on an October morning. The chief here made " a long dis- 
course," which, of course, was not understood, but they inferred it was 
expressive of "mirth and friendship." In return Caitier gave him 2 
hatchets, 2 knives and a cross^ which he made him kiss, and then put it 
around his neck. 



344 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



This done the procession advanced, without further interruption, to the 
" city of Hoch ^laga," which is described as seated in the midst of cuhi- 
vated fields, at toe distance of a Jeague from the mountain. It was secured 
by three ramparts "one within another," about 2 rods in height, "cun- 
ningly joined together after their fashion," with a single gate "shut with 
piles and stakes and bars." This entrance, and other parts of the walls, 
had platforms above, provided with stones for defensive operations. The 
ascent to these platforms was by ladders. 

As the French approached, great numbers came out to meet them. 
They were conducted by the guides, to a large square enclosure in the 
centre of the town, " being from side to side a good stone's cast." They 
were first greeted by the female part of the population, who brought their 
children in their arms, and rushed eagerly to touch or rub the faces and 
arms of the strangers, or whatever parts of their bodies they could ap- 
proach. The men now caused the females to retire, and seated them- 
selves formally in circles upon the ground; as if, says the narrator, 
"some comedy or show" was about to be rehearsed. Mats were then 
brought in by the women, and spread upon the ground, for the visitors to 
sit upon. Last came the " Lord and King"' Agouhanna, a palsied old 
man, borne upon the shoulders of 9 or 10 attendants, sitting on a "great 
stag skin." They placed him near the mats occupied by Cartier and his 
party. This simple potentate " was no whit better apparelled than any of 
the rest, only excepted, that he had a certain thing made of the skins 
of hedgehogs, like a red wreath, and that was instead of his crown." 

After a salutation, in which gesticulation awkwardly supplied the place 
of language, the old chief exhibited his palsied limbs, for the purpose of 
being touched, by the supposed celestial visitants. Cartier, although he 
appeared to be a man of sense and decision, on other occasions, was not 
proof against the homage to his imputed divinity; but quite seriously fell 
to rubbing the credulous chiefs legs and arms. For this act, the chief 
presented him his fretful "crown." The blind, lame, and impotent, of 
the town were now brought in, and laid before him, " some so old that the 
hair of their eyelids came down and covered their cheeks," all of whom 
he touched, manifesting his own seriousness by reading the Gospel of 
St. John, and " praying to God that it would please him to open the 
hearts of this poor people, and to make them know his holy word, and 
that they might receive baptism and Christendom." He then read a por- 
tion of the catholic service, with a loud voice, during which the natives 
were " marvellously attentive, looking up to heaven and imitating us in 
gestures." Some presents of cutlery and trinkets were then distributed, 
trumpets sounded, and the party prepared to return to their boats. When 
about to leave their place, the women interposed, inviting them to partake 
of the victuals they had prepared — a compliment which was declined, 
" because the meats had no savour at all of sah." They were followed 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



345 



out of the town by "divers men and women," who conducted the whole 
party to the top of the mountain, commanding a wide prospect of the plain, 
the river and its islands, and the distant mountains. Transported with a 
scene, which has continued to afford delight to the visitors of all alter times, 
Caitier bestowed the name of ^' Mount Royal" upon this eminence — a 
name which has descended, with some modifications, to the modern city. 
Having satisfied their curiosity, and obtained such information respecting 
the adjoining regio.ns, as their imperfect knowledge of the Indian lan- 
guage would permit, they returned to their boats, accompanied by a pro- 
miscnous throng of the natives. 

Thus ended, on the 3rd Oct. 1535, the first formal meeting between the 
French and the Indians of the interior of Canada, or what now began to 
be denominated New France. As respects those incidents in it, in which 
the Indians are represented as looking upon Cartier in the light of a 
divinity, clothed "'ith power to heal the sick and restore sight to the blind, 
every one will yield the degree of faith, which his credulity permits. 
The whole proceeding bears so striking a resemblance to " Christ heal- 
ing the sick," that it is probable the narrator drew more largely upon his 
New Testament, than any certain knowledge of the faith and belief of a 
savage people whose traditions do not reach far, and whose language, 
granting the most, he but imperfectly understood. As respects the de- 
scription of a city with triple walls, those who know the manner in which 
our Indian villages are built, vi'ill be best enabled to judge how far the 
narrator supplied by fancy, what was wanting in fact. A " walled 
city" was somewhere expected to be found, and the writer found no better 
place to locate it. Cartier no sooner reached his boats, than he hoisted 
sail and began his descent, much to the disappointment of the Indians. 
Favoured by the wind and tide, he rejoined his " Pinnace" on the follow- 
ing day. Finding all well, he continued the descent, without meeting 
much entitled to notice, and reached the " port of the Holy Cross," on 
the 1 Uh of the month. During his absence the ships' crews had erected 
a breastwork before the vessels, and mounted several pieces of ships' can- 
non for their defence. Donnacona renewed his acquaintance on the fol- 
lowing day, attended by Taignoagny, Domaiga, and others, who were 
treated with an appearance of friendship, which it could hardly be ex- 
pected Cartier could sincerely feel. He, in return visited their village 
of Stadacona, and friendly relations being thus restored, the French pre- 
pared for the approach of winter. 

Winter came in all its severity. From the middle of Nov. to the 
middle of March, the vessels were environed with ice "two fathoms 
thick," and snow upwards of four feet deep, re aching above the sides of 
the vessels. And the weather is represented as being " extremely raw 
and bitter." In /the midst of this severity, the crews were infected with 
^ a ftrange and cruel disease," the natural consequence of a too licentious 



346 



CARTIEr's i^OYAGES OF DISCOVERY. 



intercourse with the natives The viiulence of this disorder exceeded 
any thin^'- ihoi they had before witnessed, though it is manifest, from the 
journal, tuat it was in its virulence only, that the disease itseJf presented 
any new features. A complete piostration of strength marked its com- 
mence-jnent, the legs swelled, the sitiews shrunk as black as any coal." 
The infection became general, and excited the greatest alarm. Not more 
than I J persons out of 110 were in a condition to afford assistance to the 
sick by tile middle of February. Eight had already died, and 50 were 
supposed to be p.ist recovery. 

C II lie.', to prevent his weakness being known, as w^ell as to stop further 
infectiuij. interdicted all inteicou.se with the natives. He caused that 
"eveiy one should devoutly piepaie hiriiself by prayer, and in remem- 
brance i)i Christ, caused his image to be Srl upon a tree, about a flight 
shot f. oni the foit, amid the ice and snow, giving all men to understand 
that on the Sunday following, service should be said there, and that whoso- 
ever could go, sick or whole, should go thither in procession, singing 
the Seven psalms of David, and other Litanies, praying, &c.''. 

The disoider. however, continued to spread till there were not "above 
three sound men in the ships, and none was able to go under hatches 
to draw d.ink for himself, nor for his fellows." Sometimes they were 
consti allied to bury the dead under the snow, owing to their weakness 
and the severity of the frost, which rendered it an almost incredible labour 
to penetrate the ground. Every artifice was resorted to by Cartier, to 
keep the true state of his crews f.om the Indians, and he sought unremit- 
tingly lor a remedy against the disorder. 

In this his efforts were at last crowned with success, but not till he had 
lost 2^) of his men. By using a decoction of the b;udi;_and leaves of a cer- 
tain tree, which is stated to be -'the Sissifras tree,"^ the remainder of his 
crews wPie completely recovered. The decoction was drank freely, and 
the dregs applied externally, agreeably to the directions of Domaigaia, to 
■whom he was indebted for the informition, and who caused women 
to bring branches of it, and "therewithal shewed the way how to use it." 

The other incidents of the wii:ter were not of a character to require no- 
tice. Mutuil distrust existed. Cartier was in constant apprehension 
of ?:oine s'.ratagem, which the character and movements of his savage 
neighboMis gave some grounds for. He was detained at the bay of the 
Holy CjOss till the 6th May, 1536. The narrator takes the opportunity 
of this I'vicr-s ason of inaction to o-jve dfsrriptions of the manners and cus- 
toms, ceremonies and occupations of the [ndi ins. an ! to detail the inforina- 
tion deiived from them, and fom personal observations respecting the geo- 
graphical features and the productions of the country. 

• As the trfe is afterward.s stated to be " as hUr as any oak m France." it was proba 
bly the box elder, and not the sassafras, which never attained to much size. 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



347 



Toucliing the faiih of the Indians, it is said, they believed no .vhit in 
God, but in one whom they call Ciidruiagni," to whom, they say, they 
are often indebted for a foreknowledge of the weather. And when he is 
angry, his displeasure is manifested b}'- casting dust in their eyes. They 
believe that, after death, they go into the stars, descending by degrees to- 
wards the horizon, and are finally received into certain green fields, 
abounding in fruits and flowers. 

They are represented as possessing all property in common, and as 
being "indifferently well stored" with the useful "commodities" of the 
country — clothing themselves imperfectly in skins, wearing hose and shoes 
of skins in winter, and going barefooted in summer. I'he men labour 
little, and are much addicted to smoking. The condition of the women i? 
one of drudgery and servitude. On them the labour of tilling the grounds, 
&c., principally devolves. The young women live a dissolute life, until 
marriage, and married women, after the death of their husbands, are con- 
demned to a state of perpetual \yidowhood. Polygamy is tolerated. Both 
sexes are represented as veiy hardy, ^nd capable of enduring the most in- 
tense degree of cold. In this there is little to distinguish the native 
of 1536 from that of the present day, if we substitute the blanket for the 
mtdtaios* and except the remark respecting the condition of widows, the 
accuracy of which, as it was made upon slight acquaintance, may be rea- 
sonably doubted. It may also be remarked, that the condition of young 
women, as described by Cartier, was more degraded and vitiated than it is 
now known to be among any of the North American tribes. 

The geographical information recorded respecting the St. Lawrence 
and its tributaries is generally vague and confuted. But may be referred 
to as containing the first notice published by the French of the Great 
Lakes. Cartier was told by Donnacona and others that the river origi- 
nated so far in the interior, that "there was never man heard of that found 
out the end thereof," that it passed through " two or three great lakes," and 
that there is " a sea of fresh water," alluding, probably, to Superior. 

At what time the ice broke up, is not distinctly told. It is stated that 
"that year the winter was very long," and a scarcity of food was felt 
among the Indians, so much so, that they put a high price upon their ven 
ison, (Slc, and sometimes took it back to their camps, rather than part with 
it "any thing cheap." Donnacona and many of his people withdrew 
themselves to their hunting grounds, under a pretence of being absent 
a fortnight, but we/e absent two montlis. Cartier attributed this long 
absence to a design of raising the country, and attacking him in his fortified 
positions — a design which no cordiality of friendship on the part of D. 
would prevent his entertaining, and which the latter gave some colour to 

* Roue of beaver skins. Eight skins of two year old beaver are requ red to mak 
8uch a robe. 



348 



cartier's voyages op Disc( very* 



by neglecting to visit Cartier on his return with great numbers of natives 
not before seen, and by evading the attempts made to renew an intercourse, 
by feigning sickness as the cause of his neglect. Cartier felt his own 
weakness, from the death of so many of his crew and the sickness of others, 
and has recorded for his government on this occasion the pioverb, that 
"he that takes heed and shields himself from all men, may hope to escape 
from some." He determined to abandon one of his vessels, that he miofht 
completely man and re-fit the others, and appears to have been diligent in 
making early preparations to return. While thus engaged, Donnacona 
(April 22,) appeared with a great number of men at Stadacona, and John 
Powlet, who being best believed of those people," he sent to reconnoitre 
them in their principal villages, reported that he saw so many people, that 
"one could not stir for another, and such men as they were never wont to 
see." Taignoagny, whom he s;nv on this occasion, requested him to be- 
seech Cartier to take off " a lord of the country," called Agonna, who 
probably stood in the way of his own advancement. Cartier availed him- 
self of this request to bring on an interview wiih Taignoagny, and by flat- 
tering his hopes, finally succeeded in the execution of a project he appears 
to have previously entojtained. This was nothing less than the seizure 
of Donnacona, Taignoagny, Domaigaia, (his previous captives,) and '-two 
more of the chiefest men," whom, with the children before received, mak- 
ing ten persons in all, he conveyed to France. 

This seizure was made on the 3d of May, being " Holyrood day," ai a 
time when Cartier had completed his preparations for sailing. He took 
formal possession of the country, under the name of New France, by 
erecting a cross "thirty-five feet in height," bearing a .sliield with the arms 
of France, and the following inscription : 

" Franciscus primum dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat," 

a sentence upon which this unjustifiable outrage formed a practical com- 
ment. Three days afterwards he sailed from the port of the Holy Cross, 
leaving crowds of the natives to bewail the loss of their chiefs. And 
whose kindness led them to send on board a supply of provisions, when 
they found they could not effect their liberation. Finding the current of 
the St. Lawrence much swolr), he came to anchor at the isle of Filberds^ 
near the entrance of the Sagnenay, where he was detained nine days. Ift 
the meantime many of the natives of Sagnenay visited the ships, and find 
ing Donnacona a prisoner, they presented him three packs of beaver. Or 
the I7th May, he made an unsuccessful attempt to proceed, but was forceJ 
back and detained four days longer, waiting "till the fierceness of the wa 
lers" were past. He entered and passed out of the gulph on the 21st. bu» 
encountering adverse winds, did not take his final departure from the New- 
foundland coast till the 19th June. He then took advantage of a favorable 



CARTIEUS Vf^VAGKS OF DISCOVKRY. 



349 



ivind, and performed the honiN.vaid voyage in 17 diiys. He entered the 
port of St. Malo, July 6, 1536, nuvi.ig bet-u ubseiii less than 14 mouths, 8 
of which had been passed in the St Liwrence. 

THIRD VOYAGE. 

The reports atid discoveries of Cartier were so well received by the 
King of France (Francis I ), that he determined to colonize the newly 
discovered country, and named John Francis de la Roche, Lord of Rob- 
erval, his " Lieutenant and Governor in the countries of Canada and 
Hochelaga." Cartier retained his former situation as " Captain General 
and leader of the ships," and to him was entrusted the further prosecution 
of discoveries. Five vessels were ordered to be prepared at St. Malo, and 
measures appear to have been taken to carry out settlers, cattle, seeds, 
and agricultural implements. Much delay, however, seems to have 
attended the preparations, and before they were completed, Donnacona 
and his companions, who had been baptized, paid the debt of nature. A 
little girl, ten years old, was the only person surviving out of the whole 
number of captives. 

It is seldom that a perfect harmony has prevailed between the leaders 
of naval and land forces, in the execution of great enterprises. And 
though but little is said to guide the reader in forming a satisfactory opi- 
nion on the subject, the result in this instance proved that there was a 
settled dissatisfaction in the mind of Cartier respecting the general ar- 
rangements for the contemplated voyage. Whether he thought himself 
neglected in not being invested with the government of the country he 
had discovered, or felt unwilling that another should share in the honors 
of future discoveries, cannot now be determined, it should be recollected 
that the conquest of Mexico had then but recently been accomplished 
(1520), and it is not improbable that Cartier, who had taken some pains 
to exalt Donnacona into another Montezuma, thought himself entitled 
to receive from Francis, rewards and emoluments in some measure cor- 
responding to those which his great rival, Charles, had finally bestowed 
upon Cortez. 

Whatever were the causes, four years elapsed before the ships were 
prepared, and M. La Roche, on visiting the vessels in the road of St. 
Malo, ready for sea, then informed Cartier that his artillery, munitions, 
and " other necessary things'* which he had prepared, were not yet arriv- 
ed from Champaigne and Nonnaiuly. Cartier, in the meantime, had 
received positive orders from the King to set sail. In this exigency, it 
was determined that Cartier should proceed, while the King's Lieuten- 
ant should remain to prepare a ship or two at Honfleur, whither he 
thought his things were come." 

This arrangement concluded, La Roche invested Cartier with full 



350 



cartier's voyages of discovery. 



powers to act until his arrival, and the latter set sail with five ships, 
" well furnished and victualled for two years," on the 23d of May, 1540. 
Storms and contrary winds attended the passage. The ships parted com- 
pany, and were kept so long at sea, that they w ere compelled to water 
the cattle, ScC, they took out for breed, with cider. At length, the ves- 
sels re-assembled in the harbor of Carpunt in Newfoundland, and after 
taking in wood and water, proceeded on the voyage, Cartier not deem- 
ing it advisable to wait longer for the coming of La Roche. He reached 
the little haven of Saincte Croix (where he wintered in the former voy- 
age), on the 23d of August. His arrival was welcomed by the natives, 
who crowded around his vessels, with Agona at their head, making 
inquiries after Donnacona and his companions in captivity. Cartier 
replied, that Donnacona was dead, and his bones rested in the ground 
— that the other persons had become great lords, and were married, and 
settled in France. No displeasure was evinced by the intelligence of 
Donnacona's death. Agona, on the contrary, seemed to be well pleased 
with it, probably, as the journahst thinks, because it left him to rule in his 
stead. He took oflf his head-dress and bracelets, both being of yellow 
leather edged with wampum, and presented them to Cartier. The lat- 
ter made a suitable return to him and his attendants in small presents, 
intimating that he had brought many new things, which were intended 
for them. He returned the chieftain's simple "crown." They then 
ate, drank, and departed. 

Having thus formally renewed intercourse with the natives, Cartier 
sent his boats to explore a more suitable harbor and place of landing. 
They reported in favor of a small river, about four leagues above, where 
the vessels were accordingly moored, and their cargoes discharged. Of 
the spot thus selected for a fort and harbor, as it was destined afterwards 
to become celebrated in the history of Canada, it may be proper to give 
a more detailed notice of Cartier's original description. The river is 
stated to be fifty paces broad, having three fathoms water at full tide, 
and but a foot at the ehb, having its entrance towards the south, and its 
course very serpentine. The beauty and fertility of the lands bordering 
it, the vigorous growth of trees, and the rapidity of vegetation, are highly 
and (I believe) very justly extolled. Near it, there is said to be "a high 
and steep cliff," which it was necessary to ascend by " a way in manner 
of a pair of stairs," and below it, and between it raid the river, an inter- 
val sufficiently extensive to accommodate a foi .. A work of defence 
was also built upon the cliff, for the purpose of keeping the " nether 
fort and the ships, and all things that might pass, as well by the great, as 
by this small river." Upon the cliff a spring of pure water was discov- 
ered near the fort, *' adjoining whereunto," says the narrator, " we found 
good store of stones, which we esteemed to the diamonds" (limpid 
«uartz). At ttie foot of the cliff, facing the St. Lawrence, they found 



cartier's voyages op discovery. ' 35 

iron, and at the water's edge " certain leaves of fine gold (mica) as thick 
as a man's nail.'* 

The ground was so favorable for tillage, that twenty men labored at 
an acre and a half in one day. Cabbage, turnip, and lettuce seed, sprung 
up thp eighth day. A luxurious meadow was found along the river, and 
the woods were clustered with a species of the native grape. Such were 
the natural appearance and advantages of a spot which was destined to 
be the future site of the city and fortress of Quebec,* " but to which 
he gave the name of Charlesbourg Royal.' " 

Carder lost no time in despatching two of his vessels to France, under 
command of Mace Jollobert and Stephen Noel, his brother-in-law and 
nephew, with letters to the king, containing an account of his voyage 
and proceedings, accompanied with specimens of the mineral treasures he 
supposed himself to have discovered ; and taking care to add " how 
Mons. Roberval had not yet come, and that he feared that by occasion 
of contrary winds and tempests, he was driven back again into France." 
These vessels left the newly discovered town and fort of " Charlesbourg 
Royal" on the 2d of September. And they were no sooner despatched, 
than Cartier determined to explore the " Saults" or rapids of the St. 
Lawrence, which had been described to him, and partly pointed out, dur- 
ing his ascent to the mountain of Montreal. Leaving the fort under the 
command of the Viscount Beaupre, he embarked in two boats on the 7th 
of September, accompanied by Martine de Painpont and other " gentle- 
men," with a suitable complement of mariners. The only incident re- 
corded of the passage up, is his visit to " the Lord of Hochelay" — a chief 
who had presented him a little girl, on his former visit, and evinced a 
ft-iendship during his stay in the river, which he was now anxious to 
show that he preserved the recollection of. He presented the chief a 
cloak " of Paris red," garnished with buttons and bells, with two basins 
of " Laton" (pewter), and some knives and hatchets. He also left with 
this chief two boys to acquire the Indian language. 

Continuing the ascent, he reached the lower " Sault" on the 11th of 
the month, and, on trial, found it impossible to ascend it with the force 
of oars. He determined to proceed by land, and found a well-beaten 
path leading in the desired course. This path soon conducted him to an 
Indian village, where he was well received, and furnished with guides 
to visit the second " Sault." Here he was informed that there was 
another Sault at some distance, and that the river was not navigable — a 
piece of information that meant either that it was not navigable by the 
craft Cartier had entered the river with, or was intended to repress his 
further advance into the country. The day being far spent, he returned 
to his boats, where four hundred natives awaited his arrival. He ap- 

* Qiieiy— Is not the word Quebec a derivative from the Algonquin phrase Kcbic-^ 
VL term uilered in passing by a dangcous and rocky cocist ? 



352 



cartier's voyages op discovery. 



peased their curiosity, by interchanging civilities, and' distributing small 
presents, and made all speed to return to Charlesbourg Royal, where he 
learned that the natives, alarmed by the formidable defences going on, 
had intermitted their customary visits, and evinced signs of hostility. 
This inference was confirmed by his own observations on the downward 
passage, and he determined to use the utmost diligence and precaution 
to sustain himself in his new position. 

The rest of this voyage is wanting. Hackluyt has, however, pre- 
served two letters of Jacques Noel, a relative of Cartier, written at St. 
Malo in 1587, with the observations of latitude, courses, and distances, 
made by " John Alphonso of Xanctoigne," who carried out La Roche, 
Lord of Roberval, to Canada, in lo42, and a fragment of RobervaPs nar- 
rative, which indicated the sequel of Cartier^s third and last voyage. 
From the latter, it appears that Roberval entered the harbor of Belle 
Isle in Newfoundland, on the 8th of June, 1542, on his way to Canada; 
and while there, Cartier unexpectedly entered the same harbor, on his 
return to France. He reported that he was unable " with his , small 
company" to maintain a footing in the country, owing to the incessant 
hostility of the natives, and had resolved to return to France. He pre- 
sented the limpid quartz, and gold yellow mica, which he had carefully 
cherished, under a belief that he had discovered in these resplendent 
minerals, the repositories of gold and diamonds. An experiment was 
made the next day, upon what is denominated " gold ore," by which 
term the journalist does not probably refer to the " mica," considered, 
in an age in which mineralogy had not assumed the rank of a science, as 

leaves of gold," but to pieces of yellow pyrites of iron, which it is men- 
tioned in the description of the environs of Charlesbourg Royal" Cartier 
had discovered in the slate rock. And the ore was pronounced " good" 
— a proof either of gross deception, or gross ignorance in the experi- 
menter. Cartier spoke highly of the advantages the country presented 
for settlement, in point of fertility. He had, however, determined to 
leave it. He disobeyed Roberval's order to return, and " both he and 
his company" secretly left the harbor, and made the best of their way to 
France, being moved," as the journalist adds, " with ambition, be- 
cause they would have all the glory of the discovery of these parts to 
themselves." 

January 21st, 1829. 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS. 



353 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS ON THE CONDI- 
TION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

>M ADDRESS READ BEFORE THE CHIPPEWA COUNTY TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, AT 
SAULT STE-MARIE, MAY 8lh, 1832. 

The effects of intemperance on the character of nations and individu* 
als have been often depicted, within a few years, in faithful colors, and 
by gifted minds. " Thoughts that breathe and words that burn" were 
once supposed to be confined, exclusively, to give melody to the lyre, 
and life to the canvass. But the conceptions of modern benevolence 
have dispelled the illusion, and taught us that genius has no higher ob- 
jects than the promotion of the greatest amount of good to man — that 
these objects come home to the " business and bosoms" of men in their 
every day avocations — that they lie level to every capacity, and never 
assume so exalted a character, as when they are directed to increase the 
sum of domestic happiness and fireside enjoyment — 

" To mend the morals and improve the heart." 

It is this consideration that gives to the temperance effort in our day, 
a refined and expansive character — ^ 

" Above all Greek, above all Roman fame" — 
which has enlisted in its cause sound heads and glowing hearts, in all 
parts of our country — which is daily augmenting the sphere of its influ- 
ence, and which has already carried its precepts and examples from the 
little sea-board village,* where it originated, to the foot of Lake Superior. 
And I have now the pleasure of seeing before me a society, assembled on 
their first public meeting, who have " banded together," not with such 
mistaken zeal as dictated the killing of Paul, or assassinating Caesar, but 
for giving their aid in staying the tide of intemperance which has been 
rolling westward for more than three centuries, sweeping away thou- 
sands of white and red men in its course — which has grown with the 
growth of the nation, and strengthened with its strength, and which 
threatens with an overwhelming moral desolation all who do not adopt 
the rigid maxim — 

" Touch not. taste not, handle not." 
The British critic of the last century little thought, while moralizing 
upon some of the weaknesses of individual genius, that he was uttering 
maxims which would encourage the exertions of voluntary associations 
of men to put a stop to intemperance. It was as tjrue then as now, that 
" in the bottle, discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and 
bashfulness for confidence." It was as true then, as now, that the " neg- 



* Andover. 

23 



354 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS 



ligerice and irregularity'' which are the fruits of this habit," if long con- 
tinued, will render knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius con- 
temptible." *' Who," he exclaims, " tbat ever asked succors from^ 
Bacchus, was able to preserve himself from being enslaved by his aux- 
iliary And is there a species of servitude more pernicious in its in- 
fluence, more degrading in its character, more destructive of all physical 
and intellectual power, than the slavery of inebriation % The rage of 
the conflagration — the devastation of the flood — the fury of the tempest, 
are emblematic of the moral fury of the mind under the influence of 
alcohol. It is equally ungovernable in its power, and destructive in its 
effects. But its devastations are more to be deplored, because they are 
the devastations of human faculties — of intellectual power — of animal 
energy — of moral dignity — of social happiness — of temporal health — of 
eternal felicity. 

Intemperance is emphatically the parent of disease, mental and phy- 
sical. Its direct effects are to blunt the faculty of correct thinking, and 
to paralyze the power of vigorous action. Nothing more effectually 
takes away from the human mind, its ordinary practical powers of dis- 
crimination and decision, without which man is like a leaf upon the tem- 
pest, or the chaff" before the wind. Dr. Darwin has aptly compared the 
effects of spirituous liquors upon the lungs to the ancient fable of Pro- 
metheus stealing fire from heaven, who was punished for the theft by 
a vulture gnawing on the liver.f A striking allegory : but one which is 
not inaptly applied to characterize the painful and acute diseases which 
are visited upon the inebriate. Dr. Rush was an early advocate of the 
cause. He likened the effects of the various degrees of alcohol, in spir- 
ituous drinks, to the artificial mensuration of heat by the thermometer, 
and took a decided stand in pointing out its poisonous effects upon the 
system, in the generation of a numerous class of diseases, acute and 
chronic. 

If unhealthy food had been the cause of such -disorders, the article 
"would be rigidly shunned. No man would choose to eat twice of the 
cicuta ; to use bread having a portion of lime in it ; or to drink frequently 
of a preparation of sugar of lead. Even the intemperate would fear to 
drink of alcohol, in its state of chemical purity, for its effects would cer- 
tainly be to arrest the functions of life. Yet he will drink of this pow- 
erful drug, if diluted with acids, saccharine and coloring matter, water 
and various impurities, under the disguised names of wine, brandy, rum, 
malt liquors, whisky, cordials, and mixed potations, whict ail tend to 
pamper the natural depravity of the human heart, and poison its powers 
of healthful action. 

Alcohol is one of the preparations which were brought to light in the 



* Dr. Johnson. 



T Zoonomiau 



ON THE INDIAN RACE. 



355 



age of the x\]chemysts — when the human mind had run mad in a philo- 
sopiiic research after two substances which were not found in nature — the 
philosopher's stone, and the universal panacea. One, it was believed, 
was to transmute all substances it touched into gold, and the other, to cure 
all diseases. The two great desires of the world — wealth and long lifty 
were thus to be secured in a way which Moses and the Prophets had 
never declared. A degree of patient ascetic research was devoted to the 
investigation of natural phenomena, which the world had not before wit- 
nessed ; and modern science is indebted to the mistaken labors of this 
race of chemical monks, for many valuable discoveries, which were, for 
the most part, stumbled on. So far as relates to the discovery of the 
alcoholic principle of grains, a singular reversal of their high anticipa- 
tions has ensued. They sought for a substance to enrich mankind, but 
found a substance to impoverish them : they sought a power to cure all 
diseases, but they found one to cause them. Alcohol is thus invested 
with great talisman ic power : and this power is not to create, but to 
destroy— not to elevate, but to prostrate — not to impart life, but death. 

How extensive its uses are, as a re-agent and solvent, in medicine and 
the arts — or if its place could be supplied, in any instances, by other sub- 
stances — are questions to be answered by physicians and chemists. But 
admitting, what is probable to my own mind, that its properties and uses 
in pharmacy and the arts are indispensable in several operations, in the 
present state of our knowledge — does this furnish a just plea for its ordi- 
nary use, as a beverage, in a state of health 1 No more than it would, 
that because the lancet and the probe are useful in a state of disease, 
they should be continued in a state of health. And do not every class 
of men who continue the use of ardent spirits, waste their blood by a diur- 
nal exhaustion of its strength and healthy properties, more injurious than 
a daily depletion ; and probe their flesh with a fluid too subtle for the 
physician to extract ? 

The transition from temperate to intemperate drinking, is very easy. 
And those who advocate the moderate use of distilled spirits are indeed 
the redl advocates of intemperance. No man ever existed, perhaps, who 
thought himself in danger of being enslaved by a practice, which he, at 
frrsty indulged in moderation. A habit of relying upon it is imperceptibly 
formed. Nature is soon led to expect the adventitious aid, as a hale 
man, accustomed to wear a staff*, may imagine he cannot do without it, 
until he has thrown it aside. If it communicates a partial energy, it is 
the energy of a convulsion. Its joy is a phrenzy. Its hope is a phan- 
tom. And all its exhibitions of changing passion, so many melancholy 
proofs of 

"the reasonable soul run mad." 
Angelic beings are probably exalted above all human weaknesses.— 



356 



THE INFLUENCE OP AlUlKN'J SI IKITS 



But if there be anything in their survey ol our a<*tions which causes 
them to weep, it is the sight of a drunken father in the domestic circle. 

Instructed reason, and sound piety, have united their voices in decry- 
ing the evils of intemperance. Physicians have described its effects m 
deranging the absorbent vessels of the stomach, and changing the heal- 
thy organization of the system. Moralists have portrayed its fatal influ- 
ence on the intellectual faculties. Divines have jiointed o..t its destruc- 
tive powers on the soul. Poetry, philosophy and science, have mourned 
the numbers who have been cut down by it. Common sense has raised 
up its voice against it. It is indeed — 

" a monster of so frightful mien, 

That to be hated, nee.ls but to be sem." 

Like the genie of Arabic fable, it has risen up, where it was least 

expected, and stalked through the most secret and the most public 

apartments. And wherever it has appeared, it has prostrated the human 

mind. It has silenced the voice of eloquence in the halls of justice and 

legislation. It has absorbed the brain of the scientific lecturer. , It has 

caused the sword to drop from the hand of the military leader. It has 

stupefied the author in his study, and the pastor in his desk. It has 

made the wife a widow in her youth, and caused the innocent child to 

weep upon a father's grave. We dare not look beyond it. Hope, who 

has attended the victim of intemperance through all the changes of his 

downward fortune, and not forsaken him in any other exigency, has 

forsaken here. Earth had its vanities to solace him, but eternity has 

none. 

*' Wounds of the heart — care, disappointment, loss, 

Love, joy, and friendship's fame, and fortune's cross, 

The wound that mars the flesh — the instant pain 

That racks the palsied limb, or feverVI brain, 

All — all the woes that life can feel or miss, ' 

All have their hopes, cures, palliatives, but this — 

This onlij — mortal canker of the mind. 

Grim Belial's last attempt on human kind.'' 

If such, then, are the effects of ardent spirits upon the condition of civi- 
lized man, who has the precepts of instructed reason to enlighten him, 
and the consolations of Christianity to support him, what must be the 
influence of intemperate habits upon the aboriginal tribes I propose 
to offer a few considerations upon this subject. And in so doing I dis- 
, claim all intention of imputing to one nation of the European stock, more 
than the other, the national crime of having introduced ardent spirits 
among the American Indians. Spaniards, Portuguese, Swedes, Dutch, 
Italians, Russians, Germans, French and English, all come in for a share 
of the obloquy. They each brought ardent spirits to the New World — 
a proof, it may be inferred, of their general use, as a drink in Europe, at 
the era of the discovery. Whatever other articles the first adventurer.** 
took to operate upon the hopes and fears of the new found people, distilled 



ON THE INDIAN RACK, 



357 



or fermented liquor appears to have been, in no instance, overlooked or for- 
gotten. It would be easy to show the use made of them in the West In- 
dies, and in the southern part of our hemisphere. But our object is con- 
fined to the colonies planted in the North. And in this portion of the 
continent the English and French have been the predominating powers. 
It had baen well, if they had predominated in everything else — if Ihey 
had only been rivals for courage, wisdom and dominion. If they had 
only fought to acquire civil power — conquered to spread Christianity — 
negotiated to perpetuate peace. But we have too many facts on record 
to show, that they were also rivals in spreading the reign of intempe- 
rance among the Indians ; in gleaning, with avaricious hand, the furs from 
their lodges ; in stimulating them to fight in their battles, and in leaving 
them to their own fate, when the battles were ended. 

Nor do we, as Americans, affect to have suddenly succeeded to a better 
state of feelings respecting the natives than our English ancestry pos- 
sessed. They were men of sterling enterprise ; of undaunted resolution ; 
of high sentiments of religious and political liberty. And we owe to them 
and to the peculiar circumstances in which Providence placed us, all that 
we ore, as a free and a prosperous people. But while they bequeathed to 
us these sentiments as the preparatives of our own national destiny, they 
also bequeathed to us their peculiar opinions respecting the Indian tribes. 
And these opinions have been cherished with obstinacy, even down to 
our own times. The noble sentiments of benevolence of the 19th century 
had not dawned, when we assumed our station in the family of nations. 
If they were felt by gifted individuals, they were not felt by the body of 
the nation. Other duties — the imperious duties of self-existence, national 
poveity, wasted resources, a doubtful public credit, a feeble population, 
harassing frontier wars, pressed heavily upon us. But we have seen 
al! these causes of national depression passing away, in less than half a 
century. With them, it may be hoped, have passed away, every obsta- 
cle to the exercise of the most enlarged charity, and enlightened philan- 
thropy, respecting the native tribes. 

Nationality is sometimes as well characterized by small as by great 
thlng.^ — by names, as by customs. And this may be observed in the 
treatment of the Indians, so far as respects the subject of ardent spir- 
its, i Under the French government they were liberally supplied with 
hrati'-l v. Under the English, with Jamaica rum. Under the Americans, 
with v.'hisky.'^These constitute the fire, the gall, and the poison ages of In- 
dian history. 'Under this triple curse the)' have maintained an existence 
in the fice of a white population. But it has been an existence merely. 
Oth»T nations are said to have had a golden age. But there has been no 
golden ajje for them. If there ever was a state of prosperity among 
th-^m, which may be likened to it, it was when their camps were crowned 
with temporal abundance — when the races of animals, furred and unfur- 



358 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS 



red, placed food and clothing within the reach of all — and when they 
knew no intoxicating drink. To counterhalance these advantages, they 
were, however, subject to many evils. They were then, as they are 
now, indolent, improvident, revengeful, warlike. Bravery, manual 
strength, and eloquence, were the cardinal virtues. And their own feuds 
kept them in a state of perpetual insecurity and alarm. The increased 
value given to furs, by the arrival of Europeans, created a new era in 
their history, and accelerated their downfall. It gave an increased energy 
and new object to the chase. To reward their activity in this employ- 
ment, ardent spirits became the bounty^ rather than the price. A two- 
fold injury ensued. The animals upon whose flesh they had subsisted 
became scarce, and their own constitutions were undermined with the 
subtle stimulant. 

Historical writers do not always agree : but they coincide in their tes- 
timony respecting the absence of any intoxicating drink among the north- 
ern Indians, at the time of the discovery. It is well attested that the 
Azteeks, and other Mexican and Southern tribes, had their pulque^ and 
other intoxicating drinks, which they possessed the art of making from 
various native grains and fruits. But the art itself was confined, with 
the plants employed, to those latitudes. And there is no historical evi- 
dence to prove that it was ever known or practised by the tribes situated 
north and east of the Gulf of Mexico. Dr. Robertson, an able and faith- 
ful describer of Indian manners, fully concurs with the Jesuit authors, in 
saying that no such beverage was known in the north, until Europeans 
found it for their pecuniary interest to supply it. After which, intoxica- 
tion became as common among the northern as the southern tribes.* 

Three hundred and forty years ago there was not a white man in 
America. Columbus discovered the West India Islands ; but Cabot and 
Verrizani were the discoverers of North America. Cartier and Hudson 
followed in the track. The first interview of Hudson with the Mohegan 
tribes, took place at the mouth of the river which now bears his name. 
It is remarkable as the scene of the first Indian intoxication among them. 
He had no sooner cast anchor, and landed from his boat, and passed a 
friendly salutation with the natives, than he ordered a bottle of ardent 
spirits to be brought. To show that he did not intend to offer them 
what he would not himself taste, an attendant poured him out a cup of 
the liquor, which he drank off. The cup was then filled and passed to 
the Indians. But they merely smelled of it and passed it on. It had 
nearly gone round the circle untasted, when one of the chiefs, bolder 
than the rest, made a short harangue, saying it would be disrespectful to 
return it untasted, and declaring his intention to drink off the potion, if he 
should be killed in the attempt. He drank it off. Dizziness and stu- 

* Robertson's History of America. 



ON THE INDIAN RACE. 



359 



por immediately ensued. He sank down and fell into a sleep — the sleep 
of death} as his companions thought. But in due time he awoke — de- 
clared the happiness he had experienced from its effects — asked again 
for the cup, and the whole assembly followed his example.* 

Nor was the first meeting with the New England tribes very dissimi- 
lar. It took place at Plymouth, in 1620. Massasoit, the celebrated 
chief of the Pokanokets, came to visit the new settlers, not long after 
their landing. He was received by the English governor with military 
music and the discharge of some muskets. After which, the Governor 
kissed his hand. Massasoit then kissed him, and they both sat down 
together. " A pot of strong water," as the early writers expressed it, 
was then ordered, from which both drank. The chief, in his simplicity, 
djank so great a draught that it threw him into a violent perspiration 
during the remainder of the interview. | 

The first formal interview of the French with the Indians of the St. 
Lawrence is also worthy of being referred to, as it appears to have been 
the initial step in vitiating the taste of the Indians, by the introduction of 
a foreign drink. It took place in 1535, on board one of Cartier's ships, 
lying at anchor near the Island of Orleans, forty-nine years before the 
arrival of Amidas and Barlow on the coast of Virginia. Donnaconna, a 
chief who is courteously styled the Lord of Agouhanna," visited the 
ship with twelve canoes. Ten of these he had stationed at a distance, 
and with the other two, containing sixteen men, he approached the ves- 
sels. When he drew near the headmost vessel, he began to utter aa 
earnest address, accompanied with violent gesticulation. Cartier hailed 
his approach in a friendly manner. He had, the year before, captured 
two Indians on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and he now addressed the chief 
through their interpretation. Donnaconna listened to his native lan- 
guage with delight, and was so much pleased with the recital they gave, 
that he requested Cartier to reach his arm over the side of the vessel, 
that he might kiss it. He was not content with this act of salutation, 
but fondled it, by drawing the arm gently around his neck. His watch- 
ful caution did not, however, permit him to venture on board. Cartier, 
willing to give him a proof of his confidence, then descended into the 
chief's canoe, and ordered bread and wine to be brought. They ate and 
drank together, all the Indians present participating in the banquet, 
which appears to have been terminated in a temperate manner. J 

But like most temperate beginnings in the use of spirits, it soon led to 
intemperance in its most repulsive forms. The taste enkindled by wine, 
was soon fed with brandy, and spread among the native bands like a 
wildfire. It gave birth to disease, discord, and crime, in their most 

* Heckewelder's Account of the Indians, 
t Purchas' Pilgrims, Part iv., book x. 
X Hackluyt's Voyages. 



360 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS 



shocking forms. Too late the government and the clergy saw their 
error, and attempted to arrest it ; but it was too deeply seated among 
their own countrymen, as well as among the Indians. Every effort 
proved unsuccessful ; and the evil went on until the Canadas were 
finally transferred to the British crown, with this " mortal canker" 
burning upon the northern tribes. Those who have leisure and curiosity 
to turn to the early writers, will see abundant evidence of its deep and 
wide-spread influence. It became the ready means of rousing to action 
a people averse to long continued exertion of any kind. It was the 
reward of the chase. It was the price of blood. It was the great bar to 
the successful introduction of Christianity. It is impossible that the 
Indian should both drink and pray. It was impossible then, and it is 
impossible now : and the missionary who entered the forest, with the 
Bible and crucifix in one hand, and the bottle in the other, might say, 
with the Roman soliloquist, who deliberated on self-murder, 

*' My bane and antidote are both before me : 
While this informs me I shall never die, 
in a moment brings me to my end." 

National rivalry, between the English and French governments, gave 
a character of extreme bitterness to the feelings of the Indians, and served 
to promote the passion for strong drink. It added to the horrors of war, 
and accumulated the miseries of peace. It was always a struggle be- 
tween these nations which should wield the Indian power ; and, so far 
as religion went, it was a struggle between the Catholic and Protestant 
tenets. It was a power which both had, in a measure, the means of 
putting into motion : but neither had the complete means of controlling it, 
if we concede to them the perfect will. It would have mitigated the 
evil, if this struggle for mastering the Indian mind had terminated with a 
state of war, but it was kept up during the feverish intermissions of 
peace. Political influence was the e vet-present weight in each side of the 
scale. Religion threw in her aid ; but it was trade, the possession of 
the fur trade, that gave the preponderating weight. And there is noth- 
ing in the history of this rivalry, from the arrival of Roberval to the 
death of Montcalm, that had so permanently pernicious an influence as 
the sanction which this trade gave to the use of ardent spirits. 

We can but glance at this subject ; but it is a glance at the track of a 
tornado Destruction lies in its course. The history of the fur trade is 
closely interwoven with the history of intemperance among the Indians. 
We know not how to effect the separation. Look at it in what era you 
■will, the barter in ardent spirits constitutes a prominent feature. From 
Jamestown to Plymouth — from the island of Manhattan to the Lake of 
the Hills, the traliic was introduced at the earliest periods. And we 
cannot now put our finger on the map, to indicate a spot where ardent 
spirits is not known to the natives. Is it at the mouth of the Columbia, 



ON THE INDIAN RACE. 



361 



the sources of the Multnomah, or the Rio del Norde — ^the passes of the 
Rocky Mountains on Peace River, or the shores of the Arctic Sea ? it is 
known at all these places. The natives can call it by name, and they 
place a value on its possession. We do not wish to convey the idea that 
it is abundant at these remote places. We have reason to believe it is sel- 
dom seen. But we also believe that in proportion as it is scarce — in pro- 
portion as the quantity is small, and the occasion of its issue rare, so is 
the price of it in sale, and the value of it in gift, enhanced. And just so 
far as it is used, it is pernicious in effect, unnecessary in practice, unwise 
in policy. 

The French, who have endeared themselves so much in the affections 
of the Indians, were earlier in Canada than the English upon the United 
States' doast. Cartier's treat of wine and bread to the Iroquois of the 
St. Lawrence, happened eighty-five years before the landing of the Pil- 
grims. They were also earlier to perceive the evils of an unrestrained 
trade, in which nothing was stipulated, and nothing prohibited. To pre- 
vent its irregularities, licenses were granted by the French government 
to individuals, on the payment of a price. It was a boon to superannu- 
ated officers, and the number was limited. In 1685, the number was 
twenty- five. But the remedy proved worse than the disease. These 
licenses became negotiable paper. They were sold from hand to hand, 
and gave birth to a traffic, which assumed the same character in tempo- 
ral affairs, that " indulgences" did in spiritual. They were, in effect, 
licenses to commit every species of wrong, for those who got them at 
last, were generally persons under the government of no high standard 
of moral responsibility ; and as they may be supposed to have paid well 
for them, they were sure to make it up by excessive exactions upon the 
Indians. Courier du boisy was the term first applied to them. Merchant 
voyageur^ was the appellation at a subsequent period. But whatever 
they were called, one spirit actuated them — the spirit of acquiring wealth 
by driving a gainful traffic with an ignorant people, and for this purpose 
ardent spirits was but too well adapted. They transported it, along with 
articles of necessity, up long rivers, and over difficult portages. And 
when they had reached the borders of the Upper Lakes, or the banks of 
the Sasketchawine, they were too far removed from the influence of 
courts, both judicial and ecclesiastical, to be in much dread of them. 
Feuds, strifes, and murders ensued. Crime strode unchecked through 
the land. Every Indian trader became a legislator and a judge. His 
word was not only a law, but it was a law which possessed the property 
of undergoing as many repeals and mutations as the interest, the pride, 
or the passion of the individual rendered expedient. If wealth was ac- 
cumulated, it is 720/ intended to infer that the pressing wants of the In- 
dians were not relieved — that the trade was not a very acceptable and 
important one to them, and that great peril and expense were not encoun- 



362 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS 



tered, and a high degree of enterprise displayed in its prosecution. But 
it is contended, that i( real wants were relieved, artificial ones were cre- 
ated — that if it substituted the gun for the bow, and shrouds and blan- 
kets in the place of the more expensive clothing of beaver skins, it also 
substituted ardent spirits for water — intoxication for sobriety — disease 
for health. • 

Those who entertain the opinion that the fall of Quebec, celebrated in 
England and America as a high military achievement, and the conse- 
quent surrender of Canada, produced any very important improvement 
in this state of things, forget that the leading principles and desires of the 
human heart are alike in all nations, acting under like circumstances. 
The desire of amassing wealth — the thirst for exercising power — the 
pride of information over ignorance — the power of vicious over virtuous 
principles, are not confined to particular eras, nations, or latitudes. They 
belong to mankind, and they will be pursued with a zeal as irrespective 
of equal and exact justice, wherever they are not restrained by the enno- 
bling maxims of Christianity. 

Whoever feels interested in looking back into this period of our com- 
mercial Indian affairs, is recommended to peruse the published statistical 
and controversial volumes, growing out of the Earl of Selkirk's schemes 
of colonization, and to the proceedings of the North West Company. 
This iron monopoly grew up out of private adventure. Such golden 
accounts were brought out of the country by the Tods, the Frobishers, 
and the M'Tavishes, and M'Gillvrays, who first visited it, that every 
bold man, who had either talents or money, rushed to the theatre of 
action. The boundary which had been left to the French, as the limit 
of trade, was soon passed. The Missinipi, Athabasca, Fort Chipewyan, 
Slave lake, Mackenzie's and Copper Mine Rivers, the Unjigah and the 
Oregon, were reached in a few years. All Arctic America was penetrated. 
The British government is much indebted to Scottish enterprise for the ex- 
tension of its power and resources in this quarter. But while we admire the 
zeal and boldness with which the limits of the trade were extended, we 
regret that a belief in the necessity of using ardent spirits caused them to 
be introduced, in any quantity, among the North West tribes. 

Other regions have been explored to spread the light of the gospel. 
This was traversed to extend the reign of intemperance, and to prove 
that the love of gain was so strongly implanted in the breast of the white 
man, as to carry him over regions of ice and snow, woods and waters, 
where the natives had only been intruded on by the Musk Ox and the 
Polar bear. Nobody will deem it too much to say, that wherever the 
current of the fur trade set, the nations were intoxicated, demoralized, 
depopulated. The terrible scourge of the small pox, which broke out 
in the country north west of Lake Superior in 17S2, was scarcely more 
fatal to the natives, though more rapid and striking in its effects, than the 



ON THE INDIAN RACE. 



power of ardent spirits. Nor did it produce so great a moral affliction. 
For those who died of the varioloid, were spared the death of ebriety. 
Furs were gleaned with an iron hand, and rum was given out with an iron 
heart. There was no remedy for the rigors of the trade ; and there was no 
appeal. Beaver was sought with a thirst of gain as great as that which 
carried Cortez to Mexico, and Pizarro to Peru. It had deadened the 
ties of humanity, and cut asunder the cords of private faith.* Like the 
Spaniard in his treatment of Capolicon, when the latter had given him 
the house full of gold for his ransom, he was himself basely executed. 
So the northern chief, when he had given his all, gave himself as the vic- 
tim at last. He was not, however, consumed at the stake^ but at the 
holtle. The sword of his executioner was spirits — his gold, beaver skins. 
And no mines of the TDrecious metals, which the world has ever produced, 
have probably been more productive of wealth, than the fur-yielding 
regions of North America. 

But w^hile the products of the chase have yielded wealth to the white 
man, they have produced misery to the Indian. The latter, suffering for 
the means of subsistence, like the child in the parable, had asked for 
bread, and he received it ; but, with it, he received a scorpion. And it 
is the sting of the scorpion, that has been raging among the tribes for 
more than two centuries, causing sickness, death, and depopulation in its 
track. It is the venom of this sting, that has proved emphatically 

" the blight of human bliss! 

Curse to all states of man, but most to this." 

Let me not be mistaken, in ascribing effects disproportionate to their cause, 

or in overlooking advantages which have brought along in their train, a 

striking evil. I am no admirer of that sickly philosophy,- which looks 

back upon a state of nature as a state of innocence, and which cannot 

appreciate the benefits the Indian race have derived from the discovery 

of this portion of the world by civilized and Christian nations. But 

while I would not, on the one hand, conceal my sense of the advantages, 

temporal and spiritual, which hinge upon this discovery, I would not, on 

the other, disguise the evils which intemperance has caused among 

them ; nor cease to hold it up, to the public, as a great and destroying 

evil, which was early introduced — which has spread extensively — which 

is in active operation, and which threatens yet more disastrous conse« 

quences to this unfortunate race. 

Writers have not been wanting, who are prone to lay but little stress 

upon the destructive influence of ardent spirits, in diminishing the native 

population, and who have considered its effects as trifling in comparison 

to the want of food, and the enhanced price created by this want.-f The 

* The murder of Wadin, the cold-blooded assassination of Keveny, and the shoot- 
ing of Semple, are appealed to. as justifying the force of this remark. 

t The North American Review. Sanford's History of the Uniced States befoiv 
the Revoluticn. ' 



364 



THE INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SP^^ '.TS 



abundance or scarcity of foo4 is a principle in political ecoBOmy, which 
is assumed as the primary cause of depopulation. And, as such, we see 
no reason to question its soundness. If the value of labor, the price of 
clothing and other necessary commodities, can be referred to the varying 
prices of vegetable and animal food, we do not see that the fact of a 
people's being civilized or uncivilized, should invalidate the principle ; 
and when we turn our eyes upon the forest w^e see that it does not. A 
pound of beaver, which in 1730, when animal food was abundant, was 
worth here about a French crown, is now, when food is scarce and 
dear, worth from five to six dollars ; and consequently, one pound of 
beaver now will procure as much food and clothing as five pounds of the 
like quality of beaver then. It is the failure of the race of furred ani- 
mals, and the want of industry in hunting them, that operate to produce 
depopulation. And what, we may ask, has so powerful an effect in 
destroying the energies of the hunter, as the vice of intemperance } 
Stupefying his mind, and enervating his body, it leaves him neither the 
vigor to provide for his temporary wants, nor the disposition to inquire 
into those which regard eternity. His natural affections are blunted, and 
all the sterner and nobler qualities of the Indian mind prostrated. His 
family are neglected. They first become objects of pity to our citizens, 
and then of disgust. The want of wholesome food and comfortable 
clothing produce disease. He falls at last himself, the victim of disease, 
superinduced from drinking. 

Such is no exaggerated picture of the Indian, who is in a situation to 
contract the habit of intemperance. And it is only within the last year 
or eighteen months — it is only since the operation of Temperance princi- 
ples has been felt in this remote place, that scenes of this kind have be- 
come unfrequent, and have almost ceased in our village, and in our set- 
tlement. And when we look abroad to other places, and observe the 
spread of temperance in the wide area from Louisiana to Maine, we* may 
almost fancy we behold the accomplishment of Indian fable. It is related, 
on the best authority, that among the extravagances of Spanish enter- 
prise, which characterized the era of the discovery of America, the na- 
tives had reported the existence of a fountain in the interior of one of the 
islands, possessed of such magical virtues, that whoever bathed in its 
Waters would be restored to the bloom of youth and the vigor of man- 
hood. In search of this wonderful fountain historians affirm, that Ponce 
de Leon and his follovv^ers ranged the island. They only, however, drew 
upon themselves the charge of credulity. May we not suppose this tale 
of the salutary fountain to be an Indian allegory of temperance It 
will, at least, admit of this application. And let us rejoice that, in the 
era of temperance, we have found the spring which will restore bloom 
to the cheeks of the young man, and the panacea that will remove dis- 
ease from the old. 



ON THE INDIAN RACE. 365 

When we consider the effects which our own humble efforts as inha-^ 
bitants of a distant post have produced in this labor of humanity, have / 
we not every encouragement to persevere ? Is it not an effort sanctioned j 
by the noblest affections of our nature — by the soundest principles of I 
philanthropy — by the highest aspirations of Christian benevolence ? Is ! 
it not the work of patriots as well as Christians r of good citizens as well 
as good neighbors ? Is it not a high and imperious duty to rid our land 
of the foul slain of intemperance ? Is it a duty too hard for us to accom- 
plish ? Is there anything unreasonable in the voluntary obligations by 
which we are bound ? Shall we lose property or reputation by laboring 
in the cause of temperance ? Will the debtor be less able to pay his 
debts, or the creditor less able to collect them ? Shall we injure man, 
woman or child, by dashing away the cup of intoxication ? Shall we 
incur the charge of being denominated fools or madmen ? Shall we vio- 
late any principles of morality, or any of the maxims of Christianity ? 
Shall we run the risk of diminishing the happiness of others, or putting 
our own in jeopardy ? Finally, shall we injure man — shall we offend 
God ? 

If neither of these evils will result — if the highest principles of virtue 
and happiness sanction the measure — if learning applauds it, and religion 
approves it — if good must result from its success, and injury cannot \ 
accrue from its failure, what further motive need we to impel us onward, j 
to devote our best faculties in the cause, and neither to faint nor rest | 
till the modern hydra of intemperance be expelled from our country ? \ 



VENERABLE INDIAN CHIEF. 

The Cattaraugus (N. Y.) Whig, of a late date, mentions that Gov. 
Blacksnake, the Grand Sachem of the Indian nation, was recently in that 
place. He resides on the Alleghany Reservation, about twenty miles 
from the village ; is the successor of Corn Planter, as chief of the Six 
Nations — a nephew of Joseph Brant, and uncle of the celebrated Red 
Jacket. He was born near Cayuga Lake in 1749, being now ninety-six 
years of age. He was in the battle of Fort Stanwix, Wyoming, &c., and 
was a warm friend of Gen. Washington during the Revolution. He was 
in Washington's camp forty days at the close of the Revolution — was 
appointed chief by him, and now wears suspended from his neck a beau- 
tiful silver medal presented to him by Gen. Washington, bearing date 
1796. 



FATE OF THE KEB RACE IN AMERICA; 



THE POLICY PURSUED TOWARDS THEM BY GOVERNMENT, AND 
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE TRIBES WHO HAVE 
REMOVED WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.* 

The removal of the Indian Tribes within our State boundaries, to the 
west of the Mississippi, and their present condition and probable ulti- 
mate fate, have been the topic of such frequent speculation, nnisunder- 
standing, and may we not add, misrepresentation, within a few years 
past, both at home and abroad, that we suppose some notice of them, 
and particularly of the territory they occupy, and the result, thus far, 
of their experiment in self-government, drawn from authentic sources, 
may prove not unacceptable to the public. 

The nomadic and hunter states of society never embraced within 
themselves the elements of perpetuity. They have ever existed, in- 
deed, like a vacuum in the system of nature, which is at every moment 
in peril, and subject to be filled up and destroyed by the in-rushing of 
the surrounding element. Civilisation is that element, in relation to 
non -agricultural and barbaric tribes, and the only question with respect 
to their continuance as distinct communities has been, how long they 
could resist its influence, and at what particular era this influence 
should change, improve, undermine, or destroy them. It is proved by 
history, that two essentially different states of society, with regard to 
art and civilisation, cannot both prosperously exist together, at the same 
time. The one which is in the ascendant will absorb and destroy the 
other. A wolf and a lamb are not more antagonistical in the system 
of organic being, than civilisation and barbarism, in the great ethno- 
logical impulse of man's diffusion over the globe. In this impulse, bar- 
barism may temporarily triumph, as we see it has done by many striking 
examples in the history of Asia and Europe. But such triumphs have 
been attended with this remarkable result, that they have, in the end, 
reproduced the civilisation which they destroyed. Such, to quote no 
other example, was the effect of the prostration of the Roman type of 
civilisation by the warlike and predatory tribes of Northern Europe. 
Letters and Christianity were both borne down, for a while, by this irre- 
sistible on-rush ; but they were thereby only the more deeply implanted 

♦ Democratic Review, 1844, 

366 



INDIAN POLICY. 



367 



m the stratum of preparing civilisation ; and in due time, like the grain 
that rots before it reproduces, sprang up with a vigor and freshness, 
which is calculated to be enduring, and to fill the globe. 

Civilisation may be likened to an absorbent body, placed in contact 
with an anti-absorbent, for some of the properties of which it has 
strong affinities. It will draw these latter so completely out, that, to 
use a strong phrase, it may be said to eat them up. Civilisation is found 
to derive some of the means of its perfect development from letters and 
the arts, but it cannot permanently exist without the cultivation of the 
soil. It seems to have been the .fundamental principle on which the 
species were originally created, that they should derive their sustenance 
and means of perpetuation from this industrial labor. Wherever agri- 
cultural tribes have placed themselves in juxtaposition to hunters and 
erratic races, they have been found to withdraw from the latter the 
means of their support, by narrowing the limits of the forest and plains, 
iipon the wild animals of which, both carnivorous and herbivorous, hun- 
ters subsist. When these have been destroyed, the grand resources of 
these hunters and pursuers have disappeared. Wars, the introduction of 
foreign articles or habits of injurious tendency, may accelerate the period 
of their decline — a result which is still further helped forward by inter- 
nal dissensions, and the want of that political foresight by which civil 
nations exist. But without these, and by the gradual process of the 
narrowing down of their hunting grounds, and the conversion of the 
dominions of the bow and arrow to those of the plough, this result 
must inevitably ensue. There is no principle of either permanency or 
prosperity in the savage state. 

It is a question of curious and philosophic interest, however, to ob- 
serve the varying and very unequal effects, which different types of 
civilisation have had upon the wild hordes of men with whom it has 
come into contact. And still more, perhaps, to trace the original efhci 
ency, or effeminacy of the civil type, in the blood of predominating 
races, who have been characterized by it. In some of the European 
stocks this type has remained nearly stationary since it reached the 
chivalric era. In others, it had assumed a deeply commercial tone, and 
confined itself greatly to the drawing forth, from the resources of new 
countries, those objects which invigorate trade. There is no stock, 
having: claims to a generic nationality, in which the principle of progress 
has, from the outset, been so strongly marked, as in those hardy, brave 
and athletic tribes in the north of Europe, for whom the name of Teu- 
tons conveys, perhaps, a more comprehensive meaning, than the com- 
paratively later one of Saxons. The object of this race appears con- 
tinually to be, and to have been, to do more than has previously been 
done ; to give diffusion and comprehension to designs of improvement, 
and thus, by perpetually putting forth new efforts, on the globe, to carry 



368 INDIAN POLICY. 

pn roan to nis highest destiny. The same impulsive aspirations of the 
spirit of progress, the same energetic onward ness of principle which 
overthrew Rome, overthrew, at another period, the simple institutions 
of the woad-stained Britons ; and, whatever other aspect it bears, we 
must attribute to the same national energy the modern introduction of 
European civilisation into Asia. 

;^.;,When these principles come to be applied to America, and to be tested 
by its native tribes, we shall clearly perceive their appropriate and distinc- 
tive effects- In South America, where the type of chivalry marked the 
discoverers, barbarism has lingered among the natives, without being 
destroyed, for three centuries. In Canada, which drew its early 
colonists exclusively from the feudal towns and seaports, whose inhabit- 
ants had it for a maxim, that they had done all that was required of 
good citizens, when they had done all that had been previously donCy the 
native tribes have remained perfectly stationary. With the exception 
of slight changes in dress, and an absolute depreciation in morals, they 
are essentially at this day what they were in the respective eras of Car- 
tier and Champlain. In the native monarchies of Mexico and Peru, 
Spain overthrew the gross objects of idolatrous worship, and intercalated 
among these tribes the arts and some of the customs of the 16th century. 
With a very large proportion of the tribes but little was attempted be- 
yond military subjugation, and less accomplished. The seaboard tribes 
received the ritual of the Romish church. Many of those in the inte 
rior, comprehending the higher ranges of the Andes and Cordilleras, re- 
main to this day in the undisturbed practice of their ancient superstitions 
and modes of subsistence. It is seen from recent discoveries, that there 
are vast portions of the interior of the country, unknown, unexplored 
and undescribed. We are just, indeed, beginning to comprehend the 
true character of the indigenous Indian civilisation of the era of the disco- 
very. These remarks are sufficient to show how feebly the obligation* 
of letters and Christianity have been performed, with respect to the red 
men, by the colonists of those types of the early European civilisation, 
who rested themselves on feudal tenures, m'litary renown, and an eccle- 
siastical system of empty ceremonies. 

It was with very different plans and principles that North America 
was colonized. We consider the Pilgrims as the embodiment of the 
true ancient Teutonic type. Their Alaric and Brennus were found in 
the pulpit and in the school-room. They came with high and severe 
notions of civil and religious liberty. It was their prime object to sus- 
tain themselves, not by conquest, but by cultivating the soil. To escape 
an ecclesiastical tyranny at home, they were willing to venture them- 
selves in new climes. But they meant to triumph in the arts of peace. 
They embarked with the Bible as their shield and sword, and they laid 
its principles at the foundation of all their institutions, civil, literary, in« 



INDIAN POLICY. 



369 



duslrial, an3 ecclesiastic. They were pious and industrious themselves, 
and they designed to make the Indian tribes so. They bought their 
lands and paid for them, and proceeded to establish friendly neighbor- 
hoods among the tribes. Religious truth, as it is declared in the Gos- 
pel, was the fundamental principle of all their acts. In its exposition 
and daily use, they followed no interpretations of councils at variance 
with its plain import. This every one was at liberty to read. 

Placed side by side with such an enlightened and purposed race, what 
had the priests of the system of native rites and superstitions to expect ? 
There could be no compromise of rites — no partial conformity — no giving 
up a part to retain the rest — as had been done in the plains of Central 
America, Mexico and Yucatan. No toleration of pseudo-paganism, as 
had been done on the waters of the Orinoco, the Parana and the Para- 
guay. They must abandon the system at once. The error was gross 
and total. They must abjure it. They had mistaken darkness for light ; 
and they were now offered the light. They had worshipped Lucifer 
instead of Immanuel. This the tribes who spread along the shores of 
the North Atlantic were told, and nothing was held back. They 
founded churches and established schools among them. They trans- 
lated the entire Bible, and the version of David's Psalms, and the 
H3'mns of Dr. Watts, into one of their languages. Two types of the 
human race, more fully and completely antagonistical, in all respects, 
never came in contact on the globe. They were the alpha and omega 
of th'^ ethnological chain. If, therefore, the Red Race declined, and 
the white increased, it was because civilisation had more of the prin- 
ciples of endurance and progress than barbarism ; because Christianity 
was superior to paganism ; industry to idleness ; agriculture to hunting ; 
letters to hieroglyphics ; truth to error. Here lie the true secrets of 
the Red Men's decline. 

There are but three principal results which, we think, the civilized 
world could have anticipated for the race, at the era of the discovery. 
1. They might be supposed to be subject to early extermination on the 
coasts, where they were found. A thousand things would lead to this, 
which need not be mentioned. Intemperance and idleness alone were 
adequate causes. 2. Philanthropists and Christians might hope to re 
claim them, either in their original positions on the coasts, or in agri- 
cultural communities in adjacent parts. 8. Experience and forecast 
might indicate a third result, in which full success should attend 
neither of the foregoing plans, nor yet complete failure. There was 
nothing, exactly, in the known history of mankind, to guide opinion. 
A mixed condition of things was the most probable result. And this, 
it might be anticipated, would be greatly modified by times and seasons, 
circumstances and localities, acting on particular tribes. Nothing less 
could have been expected but the decline and extinction of some tribe, 

24 



370 



INDIAN POL CY. 



whilst the removal of others, to less exposed positions, would be found 
to tell upon their improvennent. The effects of letters and Christianity 
would necessarily be slow ; but they were effects, which the history of 
discovery and civilisation, in other parts of the world, proved to be 
effective and practical. What was this mixed condition to eventuate 
in ? — how long was it to continue ? Were the tribes to exercise sove- 
reign political jurisdiction over the tracts they lived on ? Were they to 
submit to the civilized code, and if so, to the penal code only, or also 
to the civil ? Or, if not, were they to exist by amalgamation with the 
European stocks, and thus contribute the elements of a new race ? 
These, and many other questions, early arose, and were ofien not a little 
perplexing to magistrates, legislatures, and governors. It was evident 
the aboriginal race possessed distinctive general rights, but these existed 
contemporaneously, or intermixed with the rights of the discoverers. 
How were these separate rights to be defined ? How were the weak 
to be protected, and the strong to be restrained, at points beyond the 
ordinary pale of the civil law ? If a red man killed a white, without 
the ordinary jurisdiction of the courts, could he be seized as a criminal ? 
And if so, were civil offences, committed without the jurisdiction of 
either territory, cognizable in either, or neither ? Could there be a 
supremacy within a supremacy ? And what was the limit between 
State and United States laws ? Such were among the topics entering 
into the Indian policy. It was altogether a mixed system, and like most 
mixed systems, it worked awkwardly, confusedly, and sometimes badly. 
Precedents were to be established for new cases, and these were per- 
petually subject to variation. Legislators, judges, and executive officers 
were often in doubt, and it required the wisest, shrewdest, and best meu 
in the land to resolve these doubts, and to lay down rules, or advice, for 
future proceeding in relation to the Red Race. It will be suffic*?nt to 
Dear cut the latter remark, to say, that among the sages who ^eemed 
this subject important, were a Roger W^illiams, a Penn, a Frnnklin, a 
Washington, a Jefferson, a Monroe, a Crawford, and a Calhoun. 

It must needs have happened, that where the Saxon race went, the 
principles of law, justice, and freedom, must prevail. These principles, 
as they existed in England at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
were transferred to America, with the Cavaliers, the Pilgrims, and the 
Quakers, precisely, as to the two first topics, as they existed at home. 
Private rights were as well secured, and public justice as well awarded 
here, as there. But they also brought over the aristocratic system, 
which was upheld by the royal governors, who were the immediate re- 
presentatives of the crown. The doctrine was imprescriptible, that the 
fee of all public or unpatented lands was in the crown, and all inhabit- 
ants of the realm owed allegiance and fealty to the crown. This doc- 
trine, when applied to the native tribes of America, left them neither 



INDIAN POLICY, 



371 



fee-simple in the soil, nor political sovereignty over it. It cut them 
down to vassals, but, by a legal solecism, they were regarded as a sort 
of free vassals. So long as the royal governments remained, they had 
the usufruct of the public domain — the right of tishing, and hunting, and 
planting upon it, and of doing certain other acts of occupancy ; but this 
right ceased just as soon, and as fast, as patents were granted, or the public 
exigency required the domain. The native chiefs were quieted with 
presents from the throne, through the local officers, and their ideas of in- 
dependence and control were answered by the public councils, in which 
friendships were established, and the public tranquillity looked after. 
Private purchases were made from the outset, but the idea of a public 
treaty of purchase of the soil under the proprietary and royal governors, 
was not entertained before the era of William Penn. 

It remained for the patriots of 1775, who set up the frame of our pre- 
sent government, by an appeal to arms, to award the aboriginal tribes 
the full proprietary right to the soil they respectively occupied, and to 
guarantee to them its full and free use, until such right was relinquished 
by treaty stipulations. So far, they were acknowledged as sovereigns. 
This is the first step in their political exaltation, and dates, in our re- 
cords, from the respective treaties of Fort Pitt, September 17, 1778, 
and of Fort Stanwix, of October 22, 1784. The latter was as early 
after the establishment of our independence, as these tribes — the Six 
nations, who, wiih the exception of the Oneidas, sided with the parent 
country — could be brought to listen to the terms of peace. They were 
followed by the Wyandols, Delawares, and Chippewas, and Ottowas, 
in January, 17S5 ; by the Cherokees, in November of the same year ; 
and by the Choctaws and Shawnees, in January, 1786. Other western 
nations followed in 1789 ; the Creeks did not treat till 1790. And from 
this era, the system has been continued up to the present moment. It 
may be affirmed, that there is not an acre of land of the public domain 
of the United States, sold at the land offices, from the days of General 
Washington, but what has been acquired in this manner. War, in which 
we and they have been frequently involved, since that period, has con- 
veyed no territorial right. We have conquered them, on the field, not 
to usurp territory, but to place them in a condition to observe how much 
more their interests and permanent prosperity vi^ould be, and have ever 
been, promoted by the plough than the sword. And there has been a 
prompt recurrence, at every mutation from- war to peace, punctually, to 
that fine sentiment embraced in the first article of the first treaty ever 
made between the American government and the Indian tribes, namely, 
that all offences and animosities shall be mutually forgiven, and buried 
in deep oblivion, and never more be had in remembrance."* 



* Treaty of Fort Pitt, 177S. 



INDIAN POLICY. 



The first step to advance th^ abjiigiu.il man to his natural and just 
political rights, namely, th.^ ackiiovvldJgin.^nt of his right Cj the soil, we 
have mentioned ; but ihose thai were to succeed it were more difficult 
and complex in their bearings. Congress, from the earliest traces ot 
their action, as they appear in their journals and public acts, confined the 
operation of the civil code to the territory actually acquired by negotia- 
tion, and treaties duly ratified by the Senate, and proclaimed, agreeably 
to the Constitution, by the President. So nmch of this public territory 
as fell within the respective Slate lines^ fell, by the terms of our politi- 
cal compact, under State latos, and the jurisdiction of the Slate courts ; 
and as soon as new tracts of the Indian territory, thus within State boun- 
daries, were acquired, the State laws had an exact corresponding exten- 
sion until the whole of such Indian lands had been acquired. This pro- 
vided a definite and clear mode of action, and if it were sometimes the 
subject of doubt or confliction, such perplexity arose from the great ex- 
tension of the country, its sparsely settled condition, and the haste or 
ignorance of local magistrates. And these difficulties were invariably 
removed whenever the cases came into the Suprexne Court of the United 
States. 

Without regard to the area of the States, but including and having 
respect only to the territories, and to the vast and unincorporated wil- 
derness, called the " Indian country," Congress provided a special code 
of laws, and from the first, held over this part of the Union, and holds 
over it now, full and complete jurisdiction. This code was designed 
chiefly to regulate the trade carried on at those remote points between 
the white and red men, to preserve the public tranquillity, and to provide 
for the adjudication of offences Citizens of the United States, carrying 
the passport, license, or authority of their government, are protected by 
their papers thus legally obtained ; and the tribes are held answerable for 
their good treatment, and if violence occur, for their lives. No civil 
process, however, has efficacy in such positions ; and there is no com- 
pulsory legal collection of debts, were it indeed practicable, on the Indian 
territories. The customs and usages of the trade and intercourse, 
as established from early times, prevail there. These customs are 
chiefly founded on the patriarchal system, which was found in vogue on 
the settlement of the country, and they admit of compensations and 
privileges founded on natural principles of equity and right. The Indian 
criminal code, whatever that is, also prevails there. The only excep- 
tion to it arises from cases of Americans, maliciously killed within the 
" Indian country," the laws of Congress providing, that the aggressors 
should be surrendered into the hands of justice, and tried by the nearest 
United States courts. 

These preliminary facts will exhibit some of the leading features of 
the mixed system alluded to. Its workings were better calculated for 



iriDIAN rOhlCY. 



373 



Ihe early stages of society, while population was sparse and the two 
races, as bodies, kept far apart, than for its inaturer periods. As the in- 
tervening lands became ceded, and sold, and settled, and the tribes them- 
selves began to put on aspects of civilisation, the discrepancies of the sys- 
tem, and its want of homogeneousness and harmony, became more appa- 
rent. Throughout the* whole period of the administrations of Washington, 
and John Adams, and Jelferson, a period of twenty years, the low state of 
our population, and the great extent and unreclaimed character of the 
public domain, left the Indians undisturbed, and no questions of much 
importance occurred to test the permanency of the system as regards 
the welfare of the Indians. Mr. Jefferson foresaw, however, the effect 
of encroachments beyond the Ohio, and with an enlightened regard for 
the race and their civilisation, prepared a new and consolidated code of 
all prior acts, with some salutary new provisions, which had the effect to 
systematize the trade and intercourse, and more fully to protect the rights 
of the Indians. This code served, with occasional amendments, through 
the succeeding administrations of Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy 
Adams, into that of General Jackson, when, in 1834, the greatly ad- 
vanced line of the frontiers, the .multipUed population, and necessarily 
increased force of the Indian department, and the large amount of Indian 
annuities to be paid, called for its thorough revision, and a new general 
enactment was made. 

Previously, however, to this time, during the administration of Mr. 
Monroe, it was perceived that the Indian tribes, as separate communi- 
ties, living in, and surrounded by, people of European descent, and gov- 
erned by a vyidely different system of laws, arts, and customs, could not 
be expected to arrive at a state of permanent prosperity while thus lo- 
cally situated. The tendency of the Saxon institutions, laws, and juris- 
prudence, was to sweep over them. The greater must needs absorb 
the less. And there appeared, on wise and mature reflection, no rea- 
sonable hope to the true friends of the native race, that they could sus- 
tain themselves in independency or success as foreign elements in the 
midst of the State communities. It was impossible that two systems of 
governments, so diverse as the Indian and American, should co-exist on 
the same territory. All history proved this. The most rational hope 
of success for this race, the only one which indeed appeared practical 
on a scale commensurate with the object, was to remove them, with 
their own consent, to a position entirely without the boundaries of the 
State jurisdictions, where they might assert their political sovereignty, 
and live and develope their true national character, under their own 
laws. 

The impelling cause for the action of the government, during Mr. 
Monroe's administration, was the peculiar condition of certain tribes, liv- 
ing on their own original territories, within the State boundaries, and 



374 



INDIAN POLICY. 



who were adverse to further cessions of such territory. The question 
assumed its principal interest in the State of Georgia, within which por- 
tions of the Creek and Cherokee tribes were then living. About ten 
millions of acres of lands were thus in the occupancy of these two tribes. 
As the population of Georgia expanded and approached the Indian set- 
tlements, the evils of the mixed political system alluded to began strong- 
ly to evince themselves. In the progress of the dispersion of the human 
race over the globe, there never was, perhaps, a more diverse legal, po- 
litical, and moral amalgamation attempted, than there was found to ex- 
ist, when, in this area, the descendants from the old Saxons, north-men 
and Hugenots from Europe, came in contact with the descendants (we 
speak of a theory) of the idle, pastoral, unphilosophic, non-inductive race 
of central Asia, living in the genial climate and sunny valleys of Georgia 
and Alabama. 

The American government had embarrassed itself by stipulating at an 
early day, with the State of Georgia, to extinguish the Indian title with- 
in her boundaries, at the earliest practicable period, when it could be done 
" peaceably and on reasonable conditions." The Indians, as they ad- 
vanced in agriculture, became averse to sell. The Georgians, as they 
increased in numbers, became importunate for the territory to which they 
had, in this event, the reversionary right. The President was frequently 
importuned by the State authorities. The Indians were frequently 
brought to consider the subject, which was one that increased its impor- 
tance with years. 

We have deemed it proper to put this matter in its right attitude in 
relation to the great question of Indian removal ; and as furnishing, as it 
did, reasons for the early consideration and action of the government. 
It is not our intention to pursue the Georgia question disjunctively — we 
have neither time nor space for it here, and will only further premise, 
that it is susceptible of some very different views from those often pre- 
mised of it.* That it was one of the prominent considerations which 
led the administration of Monroe to take up betimes the general question 
of the Indian tribes, is well known and remembered, and apparent from 
a perusal of the public documents of the era. 

Governed by ^uch considerations, Mr. Monroe communicated a spe- 
cial message to Congress on the 27th of January, 1S25, recommending 
the removal of all the tribes within the States and Territories, and pro- 
viding for their future "location and government." This is the official 
date and foundation of the plan of removal, which has been so generally, 

* We have only space to say here, that the cession of the Georgia lands was su*»« 
seq tently made by the Lower Creeks under the chieftaincy of General M'Intosh, 
who was the first to affix his signature to it. For this act he paid the penalty of nis 
life ; the Upper Creeks and their adherents, having assembled in arms, surrounded 
his house, and fired three hundred balls into it, killing its unhappy, but distinguish- 
ed inmate. 



INDIAN POLICY. 



375 



and may we not add, so successfully and propitiously to the best inte- 
rests of the tribes, carried into effect. Being deeply impressed with 
the opinion," observes this venerated statesman, who has, years since, 
gone to join the patriot spirits who achieved our independence — " that 
the removal of the Indian tribes from the land which they now occu- 
py, within the limits of the several States and Territories, to the coun- 
try lying westward and northward thereof, within our acknowledged 
boundaries, is of very high importance to the Union, and may be accom- 
plished on conditions, and in a manner, to promote the interests and hap- 
piness of those tribes, the attention of the government has been long 
drawn, with great solicitude, to the object. 

*' For the removal of the tribes within the limits of the State of Geor- 
gia, the motive has been peculiarly strong, arising from the compact with 
that State, whereby the United States are bound to extinguish the In- 
dian title to the lands within it, whenever it may be done peaceably, and 
on reasonable conditions. 

*' In the fulfilment of this compact, I have thought that the United 
States should act with a generous spirit, that they should omit nothing 
which should comport with a liberal construction of the instrument, and 
likewise be in accordance with the just rights of those tribes. From the 
view which I have taken of the subject, I am satisfied that, in the dis- 
charge of these important duties, in regard to both the parties alluded to, 
the United States will have to encounter no conflicting interests with 
either : on the contrary, that the removal of the tribes from the Territo- 
ries which they inhabit, to that which was designated in the message at 
the commencement of the session, which would accomplish the object 
for Georgia, under a well digested plan for their government and civili- 
sation, in a mode agreeable to themselves, would not only shield them 
from impending rain, but promote their welfare and happiness. Expert 
ence has clearly demonstrated that^ in their present state, it is impossible to 
incorporate them, in such masses, in any form whatever, into our system. It 
has also demonstrated, with equal certainty, that without a timely anticipa' 
Hon of, and provision against, the dangers to which they are exposed, under 
causes which it will he difficult, if not impossible, to control, their degrada- 
tion and extermination will be inevitable."^^ 

We have underscored the last two sentences, because they express 
in forcible and just language, the experience of the American govern- 
ment, in relation to the subject, after an experiment of fifty years, dating 
from '75, and lie, indeed, at the foundation of the present Indian policy. 
It is also the experience of sound and calm observers, who have watch- 
ed the operation of our lavvs and customs upon the isolated Indian com- 
muniiies in the States. Every year has exemplified the futility of rais- 
ing them up to the European standard in industry, in intelligence or cha- 
racter, while thus situated ; nor, indeed, has it been practicable to shield 



3^6 INDIAN POLICY. 

them effectually a^^ainst the combined effects of intemperance, personal 
gloth, and of popular and vulgar contumely. 

Mr. Calhoun, whose report on the subject was transmitted to Con- 
gress, with the message above named, communicates the details essen- 
tial to the execution of the proposed plan. He states the whole num- 
ber of Indians to be removed from the States and Territories, excluding 
those located west and north of Lake Michigan and the Straits of St. 
Mary's, at 97,000 souls, who occupy about 77 millions of acres of land. 
The country proposed for their location is that stretching immediately 
west, beyond the boundaries of the States of Missouri and Arkansas, 
having the River Arkansas running through its centre from west to east, 
the JNIissouri and Red rivers respectively as the northern boundary, and 
the vast grassy plains east of the Rocky Mountains, as its western 
limit. 

The map which we publish of this territory, is drawn on the basis of 
one which was published by Congress in 1834, in illustration of the re- 
port of the committee on Indian affairs of May 30th of that session. It 
embraces all the locations of tribes to that period. 

The plan proposed the gratuitous grant of the country to the respec- 
tive tribes, and their removal to it at government expense. It embraces 
the transference to it, of their schools established by religious societies, and 
supported, in part, by the civihsation fund, and all their means of moral 
and religious culture. It is based on the pursuit of agriculture, the me- 
chanic arts, and the raising of cattle and stock. It invests the tribes 
with full power of making and executing all their laws and regulations, 
civil and criminal. It stipulates military protection, to keep the sur- 
roundi^ng tribes at peace. It leaves them their political sovereignty j 
being without the boundary of the States, under their own chiefs and 
local governors, with such aids as are nece^sar}'^ to enable the various 
tribes to associate and set up the frame of an associated government to 
be managed by themselves, and as subsequently proposed in Congress, 
to be represented in that body whenever the system shall be perfected 
so as to justify this measure. It proposed, as the basis of removal, a 
solemn act of Congress, guaranteeing the country to them, and exclud- 
ing its future incorporation into the States. A second location, in the 
northern latitudes, was proposed for the Indians west of Michigan, where 
a further body of 32,266 souls were estimated to reside. 

Such were the general principles of Mr. Monroe's plan, submitted in 
1825, and subsequently adopted by Congress, in its essential features. 
It has now been in operation eighteen years, and it is proposed, in 
bringing this paper to a close, briefly to examine the condition and pros- 
pects of the expatriated tribes, in the country to which they have been 
transferred. 

By a report from the proper department, transmitted to Congress with 



INDIAN POLICY. 



377 



the President's message; in 1836, the result of the first ten j^ears' expe- 
rinnent is shown to have been the actual migration of 40,000 from 
their original seats, east, to the allotted Indian territory, west of the Mis- 
sissippi. Of this number, 18,000 were Creeks, 15,000 Choc'cavvs, 6,000 
Cherokees, 2,000 Chippewas, Oltawas, and Pottowattomies, 1,300 
Shawnees, 800 Delawares, 500 Quapaws, 400 Seminoles, 600 Kicka- 
poos, 400 Senecas, and an average of, say 250 each, of Appalachicolas, 
Weas, Piankashaws, Peorias and Kaskaskias. In this statement, small 
fractions over or under, are omitted. A location and permanent home 
has been provided for seventeen tribes and parts of tribes ; a number 
which, in the succeeding seven years, we speak from documents before 
us, has been largely augmented. The whole bod}" of the Cherokees, of 
the Creeks, or Muscogees, of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, &c., and 
also, with the exception of one principal band, of the Seminoles, have 
bfcsen removed. Portions of other tribes, not then full, have joined their 
kindred ; and some whole tribes, who had not before come into the ar- 
rangement, and ceded their lands east, as the Miamas of the Wabash, 
and the Wyandots of Sanduskey, have since accepted locations in the 
Indian territory. The Chickasaws are all located with their affiliated 
countrymen, the Choctaws ; and numbers of the ancient Iroquois con- 
federacy, the Six Nations of New York, as well as the ancient Mohe- 
gans and Munsees, have, within a few years, selected locations south of 
the Missouri. The entire number of red men now concentrated on those 
plains and valleys, where winter scarcely exerts any severity of power, 
may be set down at 77,000 souls, leaving, from the official report of 
1841, but 21,774 of the original estimated number of 1825, to be remov- 
ed ; exclusive of those west of the straits of Michilimachinac and St. 
Mary's. 

From the documents accompanying the annual report transmitted to 
Congress by the President, in December, 1840, the amount of funds 
invested by the government in stocks, for the Indians, was $2,580,000, 
on which the annual interest paid to them was $131,05. Twenty-four 
of the tribes had permanently appropriated, by treaty, $60,730 per an- 
num, for the purpose of education. The number of schools maintained, 
and the number of pupils actually taught, are not furnished. It is grati- 
fying to know, from this source, that civilisation, agriculture, and the 
mechanic arts, are making a rapid progress, and that education and 
Christianity are walking hand-in-hand. Planting and raising cattle are 
adopted generally. Portions of the most advanced tribes have devoted 
themselves to the mechanic arts, supplying themselves, to a limited ex- 
tent, with smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, and joiners, and some other 
branches. Spinning and hand-loom weaving are practised to some ex- 
tent. There are native merchants, among the three principal southern 
tribes, who ship thei^ own cotton and other products to market, and .sup- 



378 



INDIAN POLICY. 



ply their people, m return, with such products of the East and West In- 
dies, and other parts of th(3 world, as they require. A large part of the 
contracts, particularly for Indian corn, required to subsist the United 
States troops in that quarter of the Union, is furnished by native con- 
tractors. Their legislation is performed in representative councils, and 
is well adapted to the actual and advancing slate of society. Many of 
their leading men are well educated ; some of them classically ; and the 
general moral and intellectual tone and habits of the tribes, are cleany 
and strikingly on the advance. It requires, it is believed, but lime and 
perseverance in civil associations, to lead them to the same results ar- 
rived at by other barbarous nations, and to demonstrate to them the 
value and importance of a general political confederation, founded on the 
principles of equal j ights and equal representation, supported by public 
virtue and intelligence. 

Having sketched the cause of the decline of that portion of the North 
American Indians, who were seated alonij the Atlantic, and the plan 
proposed for checking it, we shall now, with the map and documentary 
evidence before us, devote a few mum-nts to the present condition and 
prospects of the more prominent tribts. 

1. The Choctaws, beginning at the ex'reme south of the territory, are 
the first in position. They occu])y the country above the State of Ar- 
kansas, extending from the Arkansas to the Red river, following up the 
Canadian branch of the former, comprising an area of about 150 miles 
in bieadth, by 200 in length. They are bounded by Texas south-west. 
The country is well adapted for grain and the raising of stock, in its 
middle and northern parts, and lor cotton on the south. Many of the 
natives have large fields, where, but a few years since, the forest was 
untouched. Saw mills, grist mills, and cotton gins, are either erecting 
or erected throughout the country. S ilt is manufactured by an intelli- 
gent Choctaw. Iron ore has been found, and specimens of gold have 
been picked up in various j)laces. 

This tribe is governed by a written constitution and laws. Their ter- 
ritory is divided into three districts, each of which elects, ouch in four 
years, a ruling chief, and ten representatives. The general council, 
thus constituted, and consisting of thiriy councillors, meets annually, on 
the first Monday in October. Voters must be Choctaws, of age, and 
residents of the di.^tricts. The thr 'e chiefs have a joint veto power 
on all laws passed ; but two-thirds of the council may re-pass them aftei 
such rejection. 

The council of thirty appoint their own speaker and clerk, and keep 
a journal. They meet in a large and commodious council-house, fitted 
up with seats for members and spectators, and committee rooms. Their 
sessions are, usually, about ten days in duration. They are paid two 
dollars per diem for their services, out of public fund.s. 



INDIAN POI.TCY. 



379 



In addiiion to thi» evidence of capacity for self-government, there are 
judicial districts established, the right of trial by jury is secured, and 
there is an appeal to the highest tribunal. All the males, of a special 
age, are subject to do military duty : for this purpose the territory is 
subdivided into thirty two captaincies, the whole being placed under the 
orders of a general. The council has passed many good and wholesome 
laws ; among them, one against intemperance and the sale of ardent 
spirits. The collection of debts is at present not compulsory, being 
regulated by questions of credit, punctuality, and honor, which are to be 
adjusted between the buver and seller. The country is too sparsely 
settled, and the popular odium against incarceration too strong, to permit 
a resort to it. Thus, it will be seen, this tribe exhibit in their frame 
of government the elements of a representative republic, not a pure 
democracy, with perhaps sufficient conservative power to guard against 
sudden popular eflfervescence. 

The Choctaws have twelve public schools, established by treaty 
stipulations with the United States. There are several missionaries 
amongst them, of the Presbyterian and Methodist denominations, whose 
labors are reported by the public agents to be beneficial, and calculated 
to advance their condition. There are four public blacksmith shops, 
two of which are exclusively worked by the natives. The strikers, or 
assistants, at all the shops, are natives. Shops have also been erected, 
in various parts of the nation, which are occupied only in the spring and 
summer, in planting and crop time. The mechanics in these are na- 
tives, who are paid, not by the individuals requiring aid, but out of public 
funds. The nation has an academy located in Scott county, Kentucky, 
at which 125 students were taught in 1839 and 1S40. This institution 
is now in the process of being established in their own territory. This 
tribe we learn by the Secretary of War's report, appropriated $18,000 
of their annuities, in 1843, to educational purposes. 

2. Chickasaws. This tribe is of the same lineage as the Choctaws ; 
and, by a compact with the latter, they occupy the same territory, and 
live intermixed with them. It constitutes a part of this compact, that 
the Chickasaws are to concentrate their population, and form a fourth 
election district, which shall be entitled to elect ten representatives, and 
three senatorial chiefs, to the national Council. The aggregate amount 
of the vested funds of this tribe, in 1840, was $515,230 44; of which 
$146,000 is devoted to orphans. The annual interest paid by the gov- 
ernment is $27,063 83. They participate equally in the advantages of 
the Choctaw academy, and have had many of their youth educated at 
that institution. 

3. Next, in geographical position, to the united Choctaws and Chick- 
asaws, are the Muskogees, who are more generally known under the 
name of Creeks. They occupy a territory one hundred and fifty mile* 



380 



INDIAN POLICY. 



in length, by ninety in breadth. They are bounded on the south by tne 
Canadian fork of the Arkansas, and by the district of the Seminoles, 
which lies between the main branch of this stream and its north fork. 
Their territory reaches to a point opposite the junction of the Neosho, 
and is protracted thence north to the Cherokee boundary. It is a rich 
tract, well adapted to the growth of corn, vegetables, and esculents, 
and the raising of stock. It is not as abundantly watered by running 
streams as some of the tracts, or rather, it is a characteristic of its 
smaller streams that they run dry, or stand in pools, during the latter 
part of summer. In place of these, it has some good springs. The 
main and the north fork of the Canadian are exemptions from the effects 
of summer drouth. In point of salubrity, the country is not inferior to 
other portions of the Indian territory. 

The government of the Creeks is still essentially the same which 
they exercised on the banks of the Chattahoochee and the plains of 
Georgia. They exist in chieftainships, each head of which has his own 
local jurisdiction, civil and criminal. Each ruling chief has his village 
and his adherents ; and the condition of things partakes of what we shall 
be understood by designating feudal traits. They have no written con- 
stitution ; their laws are, however, now reduced in part to writing. 
General councils, or conventions, not exact in the period of their occur- 
rence, consider and decide all general questions. At these, the chief- 
tainships are all entitled to representation. Local questions, of right 
and police, come before the local chiefs, and are settled according to 
usage. They adhere to the original mode of working common or town 
fields, at which it is the duty of all to assist, both in the original clear- 
ing and in the annual labor of planting and reaping. There are also in- 
dividuals, possessing slaves, who manage pretty extensive plantations. 
More corn is raised by this tribe than by any other now located West. 
Over and above their own wants, they have for several years had a 
large amount for sale and exportation. Less attention has been paid to 
the raising of stock, for which, indeed, the country has been deemed less 
propitious ; but this branch of industry has of late years attracted more 
attention. 

The Creeks had, for many years prior to their removal, been divid«»d 
mto upper and lower towns — a distinction which has been transferred to 
the West. Opothleyoholo is the chief of the Upper, and Roly Mcin- 
tosh of the Lower Creeks. These two chieftainships embrace the lesser 
ones, and divide the nation into two parties. It was the Lower towns, 
headed by the father of the present chief (who.se tragic death we have 
mentioned), that ceded the Georgian territory, and thus sided in the 
policy of that State. The condition in which this tribe existed, in por- 
tions of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, was, in other respects, pecu- 
liar. In emerging, as they were well in the process of doing, from the 



INDIAN POLICY. 



381 



hmter to the agricultural state, the institution of slavery, by which they 
were surrounded, and in which they participated, gave a peculiar de- 
velopment to their industry. Chiefs, who were averse to work them- 
selves, employed slaves, and thus the relation of planter and slave 
was established long before the question of their removal occurred. The 
effects of this were to exalt a portion of the nation above, and to depress 
others bWow, the average standing. The disparity which took place in 
laborious habits and in wealth, also impressed itself on education, dress, 
manners, and in 'ormiition generally. Although the idea of slavery was 
well known to the red race from the earliest times, and they all have a 
word for it, in their native vocabularies, and practised it on their pri- 
soners, yet the result we are considering was accelerated by an admix- 
ture of European blood in their chieftains. Hence it is that this 
tribe, and one or two others in the south, have for years been able to 
put forth intelligent chiefs to transact their public business, who have 
astonished the circles at Washington. Yet, if they were followed to 
the huts of the common people, at home, there was a degree pf igno- 
rance and barbarity, even below the standard of our leading northern 
tribes. Two kinds of testimony, respecting the condition of the southern 
tribes, both very different, and both true, could therefore be given. 

The Creeks came west, soured and disappointed, and but little dis- 
posed for the effort before them. They had suffered in various ways, 
and they had left the southern slopes and sunny valleys of the southern 
Alleganies with " a longing, lingering look." They had never mani- 
fested a general interest in schools, and none whatever in religion. The 
latter is still the prevalent feeling. It is believed there is not a mission- 
ary now tolerated among them. There is a more friendly feeling towards 
education. Neither had they made much advance in mechanic arts. 
The chiefs were too proud, the common people too indolent, to learn the 
use of the saw or the hammer. Some change, in this respect, is 
thought to have ensued. Mechanics are employed for their benefit and 
at their charges, by the government, which must introduce the elements 
of mechanical industry. They dress in a rather gaudy, but picturesque 
manner. Th<^ live in comfortable houses of squared or scored logs, 
fitted up with useful articles of furniture, and they employ beasts of 
burthen and of pleasure. It is the evidence of the government agents, 
that the signs of advancing thrift and industry are among them. Time 
alone, it is believed, is nf^cessary, with a perseverance in present efforts, 
to carry them onwards to civilisation and prosperity.* 

4. Seminoles. This tribe is of the language and lineage cf the 
Creeks. They are appropriately placed on a tract within the general 

* This tribe has, the past year 843), passed a law expelling all uhife men 
who play at cards, from the hmus oi ihc nation, whether ihey liave huliatt 
wives or not. 



382 



INDIAN POLICY. 



area of the latter, bounded on the south by the Canadian fork of Ine 
Arkansas, and by the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws. The 
tract has an extent of seventy miles from east to west, and is fully ade- 
quate to their wants. A blacksmith's shop is maintained for them ; 
they are furnished with agricultural implements, and have been gratui- 
tously subsisted, as other tribes, one year, at the public expense. It is 
tliought to be unfavorable to their progress, that they have been allowed 
to migrat.^ with their slaves, who are averse to labor and exert a para- 
lysing influence on their industry. This tribe is far behind the other 
southern tribes in civilisation and manners. They occupied, while in 
Florida, a region truly tropical in its climate, and which yielded spon- 
taneously no unimportant part of their subsistence, in the arrowroot and 
in sea fish. Their chief product thus far, in the west, has been corn. 
They live under the authority of local chiefs, who, as in all their past 
history, exercise influence in proportion to their talents and courage. 
Their withdrawal from scenes and situations which served as nurseries 
of idle, savage habits, and their association with the other leading tribes, 
who are now bent on supporting themselves exclusively by agriculture, 
have been favorable. They have been at peace since their arrival on 
the waters of the Arkansas ; and it is anticipated that they will, by ex- 
ample and emulation, assimilate themselves in industry with the pre- 
existing tribes. It has already been demonstrated that they will sus- 
tain themselves in their new field of labor. But few of their numbers 
—from the last accounts not exceeding 100* — now remain in Florida. 

6. Cherokees. This tribe is prominent among the native stocks in 
the United States, and is foremost in the efforts it has made to take rank 
among civilized nations. In this effort it has passed through some 
severe and tragic ordeals from internal dissensions, from which it would 
seem, that in proportion as the prize is brought within their grasp, are 
the trials multiplied which delay its seizure. And, notwithstanding its 
strong claims to consideration on this head, they have, it must be ad- 
milted, much to attain. The original position of the Cherokees, in 
the valleys and the western spurs of the Alleganies, and remote from 
the disturbing causes which agitated the other tribes, was highly favor- 
able to their increase and advance. No tribe in North America had 
remained so completely undisturbed, by red or white men, up to the 
year 1836. They were early, and to a considerable extent, cultiva- 
tors ; and whatever they were in ancient tim^s, they have been a 
nation at peace, for a long period. Soon after the close of the late 
"war of 1812, a portion of this tribe went over the Mississippi, and, by 
a compact with government, placed themselves between the waters of 
the White river and the Arkansas. This advance formed the nucleus 



♦ Secretary of. War's report, 1843. 



INDIAN POLICY. 



383 



ol that political party, who have mingled in their recent assemblies 
under the name of Western Cherokees, and who deemed themselves 
to be entitled to some rights and considerations above the Eastern 
Cherokees. The principal dissensions, however, grew out of the 
question of the cession of the territory east of the Mississippi. This 
was a broad question of salt or 720 sa/e, emigration or non-emigration. 
At the head of the affirmative party was Ridge ; at the head of the 
negative, Ross. The latter, in addition to his being the leading chief 
and most prominent man, was in a large majority, and, for a time, 
successfully resisted the measure. The former drew a numbei of 
the best educated chiefs and men to his side. Assailing himself of 
the temporary absence of his antagonist, Ross, from the country, he 
ceded the country, and sealed the fate of his tribe east of the Mis- 
sissippi. It was a minority treaty, but the consideration was ample ; 
it secured large prospective advantages, besides a large and rich domain 
in the West. It was, therefore, sustained by the government ; the U. S. 
Senate ratified it, adding some further immunities and further compensa- 
tion, at the instance of Ross. The tribe was removed, but it went west 
with a deadly feud. In the end. Ridge, like Mcintosh, paid for his 
temerity with his life. A representative government was set up, consist- 
ing of a house of delegates or representatives, annually chosen by dis- 
tricts ; a senatorial council, with powers of revision or co-action, and an 
executive elective head. A code of laws has been adopted, and a 
judiciary created to carry them into effect. This system, which has been 
in operation some six or seven years, has been found adequate to 
sustain itself through scenes of severe trial ; and it must be regarded 
as one which, modified as it may be, is destined to endure. 

The territory of the Cherokees is between that of the Creeks and 
Osages. It is ample beyond their wants, fertile, and generally well 
watered. The Arkansas crosses it centrally ; it has the Neosho and 
the State of Arkansas as its eastern boundary. It is well adapted to 
the cereal grains. Corn, wheat and oats succeed well, together with 
melons and culinary vegetables of all descriptions. The Cherokees 
have been long accustomed to husbandry. They own large stocks of 
horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. They occupy substantial and comforta- 
ble houses. Many of their females spin and weave, and numbers of 
their people are clothed in their own manufactures. Well improved 
farms extend through their settlements. A number of their merchants 
are natives, who buy and sell produce, and import foreign merchandise. 
Reading and writing are common attainments. They have schools and 
churches. They have mills for grinding grain. They manufacture salt 
to a limited extent. The country yields stone coal and gypsum. The 
prairies, which are interspersed through the tract, yield a fine summer 
range for ca tle, and produce a species of grass, which, when propeHy 



384 



INDIAN POL£CV. 



cured, is little inferior to timothy. With a country which has thus the 
einments of prosperity in itself, and an inteUigent and industrious popu- 
lation, this tribe must, ere long, present the gratifying spectacle of a 
civilized race. 

6. The Osages. This tribe is indigenous, and formerly owned a 
large part of the territory which is now assigned to others. Their habits 
and condition have been, however, but little benefited by the use which 
they have made of their annuities. Great exertions have been made by 
the local agents to induce them to give up their erratic mode of life, 
and become agriculturists. To this end stock and agricultural imple- 
ments have been furnished them, and other facilities given, but without 
any general effects. Among these may be named the building of mills, 
and the erection of well built cabins for their chiefs. There is no tribe 
to which the term predatory may be so appropriately applied as to the 
Osages. They have, from an early day, been plunderers on that fron- 
tier, among red and white men. Possessing a large territory, formerly 
well supplied with the deer, elk and buffalo, powerful in numbers, cou- 
rageous in spirit, and enjoying one of the finest climates, these early 
predatory habits have been transmitted to the present day. They are 
loth to relinquish this wild license of the prairies — the so-called free- 
dom of the roving Indian. But it is a species of freedom which the 
settlement of Missouri and Arkansas, and the in-gathering of the semi- 
civilized tribes from the south and the north, has greatly restricted. 
Game has become comparatively scarce. The day of the hunter is well 
nigh past in those longitudes. When to this is added the example of 
the expatriated Indians, in tillage and grazing, their field labors in 
fencing and erecting houses, their improved modes of dress, their 
schools, and their advanced state of government and laws, the hope 
may be indulged that the Osages will also be stimulated to enter for the 
prize of civilisation. 

Such are the six principal tribes who form the nucleus, or, to use a 
military phrase, the right wing of the expatriated aboriginal population, 
as the bands are arranged in their order from south to north, in the 
trans-Ozark or Indian territory. It would afford us pleasure to devote 
some separate considerations to each of the remaining nineteen tribes and 
half tribes, or remnants and pioneers of tribes, who make up this impos- 
ing and interesting colony, where, for the first time since the settlement 
of the Continent, the Indian race is presented in an independent, com- 
pact, an I prosperous condition. But it would manifestly extend this 
article beyond its just limits, and we must therefore generalize our re- 
maining notices. 

We still, however, adhere to a geographical method. The Senecas 
from Sandusky, and the mixed Senecas and Shawnees, are situated 
northeast of the Cherokees, and between the latter and the western 



IN1>*AN POLICY. 385 

boundary of Missouri. They possess a hundred thousand acres of choice 
lands. The Sanduskies number 251 souls ; the mixed band, 222. They 
are represented as farmers and stock-raisers, frugal, industrious, and less 
addicted to intemperance than their neighbors. They cultivated, in 
1839, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred acres of corn. They 
have a blacksmith's shop, under treaty stipulations, and possess good 
stocks of horses, cattle, and hogs. The Quapaws adjoin the Senecas 
and Shawnees on the north, and, as the latter, have their lands fronting 
on the Neosho. This band formerly owned and ceded the south banks 
of the Arkansas from its mouth as high as the Canadian fork. They are 
indolent, much addicted to the use of ardent spirits, and depressed in 
numbers. They have a tract of 96,000 acres. They cultivate, generally, 
about one hundred acres of corn, in a slovenly manner. Part of their 
numbers are seated on the waters of Red River, and the Indian predilec- 
tion for rowing is nourished by the frequent habit of passing to and fro. 
This erratic habit is an unerring test of the hunter state. 

The Piankashaws and Weas are of the Miami stock, and came from 
the waters of the Wabash. They are located on 255 sections, immedi- 
ately west of the western boundary of Missouri, and about 40 miles 
south of the Konza. Their population is 384, of which 222 are Weas. 
Immediately west of them are the Peorias and Kaskaskias of the Illinois 
family. They number 132, and possess 150 sections, which gives an 
average of more than a square mile to each soul. Still west of these, 
are the Ottowas of Ohio, about 200 in number, and above them, a small 
band of 61 of the Chippewas of Swan Creek and Black River in Michi- 
gan. These locations are all on the sources of the Osage River. The 
lands are fine, partly woods and partly prairie, and are easily cultivated. 
These six fragmentary bands are not dissimilar in their habits of living 
and the state of their advance in agriculture. They subsist themselves 
by raising corn and cattle and hogs. They evince an advancing condi- 
tion, and are surrounded by circumstances eminently favorable to it. 

The Shawnees are placed at the junction of the Konza with the Mis- 
souri, extending south and west. They number a httle short of 1300, 
and own a territory of ten thousand square miles, or 6,400,000 acres. 
They are cultivators and graziers in an advanced state of improvement. 
Hunting may be occasionally resorted to as a sport or amusement, but it 
has, years since, been abandoned as a source of subsistence. Indeed, 
the failure of the game in that region would have rendered the latter im- 
perative, had not their improved habits of industry led to it. This tribe 
have essentiaHy conquered their aversion to labor. They drive oxen 
and horses trained to the plough. They split rails and build fences. 
They erect substantial cabins and barns. They have old corn in their 
cribs from year to year They own good saddle-horses and saddles, and 



25 



386 



INDIAN POLICY. 



other articles of caparison, and a traveller or visitor will find a good mealy 
a clean bed, and kind treatment in their settlements. 

Next in position to the Shawnees are the Delawares, the descend- 
ants of the ancient Lenno Lenapees of Pennsylvania. Allies and kin- 
dred in their ancient position, they are still in juxtaposition in their new. 
Their tract begins at the junction of the Konza and Missouri on the 
north, and after running up the former to the Konza reserve, extends 
north and west so as to embrace it on the north. It contains about 
2450 square miles, or 2,208,000 acres. They number, at the last dales 
to which we have referred, 826 souls, and are on the increase. In point 
of habits, industry, and improvement, they are perhaps not inferior to 
any of the northern stocks. Shielded from intemperance by their posi- 
tion, out of the State limits, where they are exclusively under the influ- 
ence and protection of Congress laws, this tribe, together with the entire 
circle of Indian communities on that frontier, has been for some years 
in a favourable position for recovering and developing their true energies. 
They have, within a few years, received into their protection a small 
band (182) of the Monceys, and a smaller one, of 74, of the Stockbridges : 
the latter, we need hardly inform the intelligent reader, are descendants 
of the ancient Mohegans, and the former of the Minsi and Minnisinks, 
who, at the era of the colonization of " Nova Belgica" and New York, 
were respectively located on the east and the west banks of the Hudson. 
The Stockbridges are civilized ; the Munsees less so, but industrious. 
Both are poor, and without funds. 

Immediately succeeding the Delawares are the Kickapoos, an erratic 
race, who. under various names, in connection with the Foxes and Sacs, 
have, in good keeping with one of their many names,* skipped over half 
the continent, to the manifest discomfort of both German and American 
philologists and ethnographers, who, in searching for the so-called " Mas- 
cotins," have followed, so far as their results are concerned, an ignis 
fatuus. The Kickapoos have 12,000 square miles, or 768,000 acres. 
It IS a choice, rich tract, and they are disposed, with the example of the 
Delewares and Shawnees, to profit by it. They raise corn and cattle, 
hogs and horses, and are prosperous. Their numbers, in 1840, were 
470. There is a tract of 200 square miles, on the Great and Little 
Namaha, assigned to the metifs, or descendants of mixed blood, of the 
lowas, Otoes, and Missouris. These separate the removed and semi- 
civilized tribes, south and west of the Missouri, from the wild indige- 
nes — we mean the Otoes, the Pawnees, the Omahaws, and the Sioux, 
who extend over vast tracts, and exist without any sensible improve- 
ment in their condition. The same remark may be applied to the Kon- 
zas, who are, however, hemmed in between the Delawares and the 



* This is said, by one interpretation, to mean Rabbit's Ghost 



INDIAN POLICY. 



387 



Shawnees, except on their western borders. It is no part o{ our purpose 
to consider these tribes, as, over and above the influence of contiguous 
examples, they constitute no part of the evidence affecting the general 
question of the plan of removal. 

That this evidence, as now briefly sketched, is favorable, and indeed 
highly favorable, to the general condition and prosperity of the removed 
tribes, is, we apprehend, clearly manifest. Not only have they been 
placed beyond the wasting influence of causes which oppressed them, 
within the circle of the State communities ; but they have received in 
exchange for their eastern lands, a territory which, as a whole, is highly 
fertile and salubrious. It is a territory which has required little compa- 
rative labor to cultivate, made up as it is of mixed forests and prairies. 
It is also, viewed in extensoj well watered, having those noble streams, 
the Red River, the Arkansas, the Konza, the Platte, and the Missouri, 
with their tributaries, running through it. The range which it affords 
for cattle and stock, and the abundance of wild hay, of a nutritious qual- 
ity, has proved very favorable to an incipient agricultural population, and 
greatly mitigated the ordinary labors of farming in northern climates. 
There are no latitudes in North America more favorable to the growth 
of corn. The cotton plant has been introduced by the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws, on the banks of Red river. It is a region abounding in salt 
springs and gypsum beds, both which must hereafter be fully developed, 
and will prove highly advantageous. It is above the first or principal 
, rapids of the great streams running down the plateau of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, and consequently affords sites for water-mills, which are scarce 
and almost unknown on the lower Arkansas. There is, indeed, a com- 
bination of circumstances, which are calculated to favor the General 
Government plan, and foster the Indians in a general attempt at civilisa- 
tion and self-government. And we look with interest, and not without 
anxiety, at the result of the experiment. 

We are aware that there are trials before them, arising from great 
diversity of feelings and opinions, and states of civilisation. Some of 
the tribes are powerful, advanced, and wealthy ; some feeble and poor. 
Education has very unequally affected them. Laws are in their embryo 
state. The Gospel has been but partially introduced. In clothing the 
native councils with some of the powers of a congress, and regulating 
their action by constitutional fixity, there is great care and deliberation 
required, not, at once, to grasp too much. There is perhaps yet greater 
danger in enlarging the authority of the chiefs and sagamores into some- 
thing like presidential dimensions. The natives have great powers of 
imitation ; and it is to be feared that they will content themselves by 
imitating things which they do not fully understand or appreciate. The 
national character of the Indians is eminently luspicious. There is a 
fear to trust others, even themselves. Delegated power is narrowly 



388 INDIAN POLICY. 

watched, and often begrudged when given. The acts of tneir publie 
men are uniformly impugned. The thought seems hardly to be enter- 
tained by the common Indians, that an officer may be guided by right 
and honest motives. The principle of suspicion has, so to say, eaten out 
the Indian heart. The jealousy with which he has watched the white 
man, in all periods of his history, is but of a piece with that with which he 
watches his chiefs, his neighbors, and his very family. Exaltation of 
feeling, liberality of sentiment, justness of reasoning, a spirit of conces- 
sion, and that noble faith and trust which arise from purity and virtue, 
are the characteristics of civilisation ; and we should not be disappointed 
if they do not, all at once, grow and flourish in these nascent communi- 
ties. Still, our hopes predominate over our fears. Where so much has 
been accomplished as we see by the Cherokees, the Choctaws, and 
Chickasaws, and our most advanced northern tribes, we expect more. 
From the tree that bears blossoms, we expect fruit. 

We have no expectation, however, that without some principles of 
general political association, the tribes can permanently advance. To 
assume the character and receive the respect of a commonwealth, they 
must have the political bonds of a commonwealth. Our Indian tribes have 
never possessed any of these bonds. They are indeed the apparent rem- 
nants of old races, which have been shivered into fragments, and never 
found the capacity to re-unite. The constant tendency of all things, 
in a state of nature, has been to divide. The very immensity of the con- 
tinent, its varied fertility and resources, and its grand and wild features, 
led to this. Hitherto, the removed tribes in the West have opposed an 
associated government. They have stoutly and effectually resisted and 
rejected this part of the government scheme. They fear, the agents 
say, it is some plan to bring them under the civil yoke, Time, reflec- 
tion, and education must tend to correct this. More than all, their civil 
dissensions must tend to show the necessity of a more enlarged and gen- 
eral frame of government, in which some individual rights must be yield- 
ed to the public, to secure the enjoyment of the rest. We think there 
is some evidence of the acknowledgment of this want, in their occasional 
general councils, at which all the tribes have been invited to be present. 
During the last year (1843) such a convocation was held at Tahlequah, 
the seat of the Cherokee government. At this, there were delegates 
present from the Creeks, Chickasaws, Delawares, Shawnees, Pianka- 
shaws, Weas, Osages, Senecas, Stockbridges, Ottowas, Chippewas, 
Peorias, Pottowattomies, and Seminoles. The result of these delibera- 
tions, we are informed, was a compact in which it was agreed : — 

1. To maintain peace and friendship among each other. 

2. To abstain from the law of retaliation for offences. 

3. To provide for improvements in agriculture, the arts, and manu- 
factures. 



INDIAN POLICY. 



389 



4. To provide against any cession of their territory, in any form. 

5. To punish crimes, committed by one tribe, in the bounds of 
another. 

6. To provide for a general citizenship among the contracting parties. 

7. To suppress the use or introduction of ardent spirits. 

/ These are very mixed principles, containing no basis of a government ; 
yet, futile as they are, we apprehend they contain no effective power 
for their enforcement. A law without a penalty is like a rope of sand. 
Any of these parties might nullify either of these acts, by neglecting 
to enforce it. It is, we apprehend, the mere expression of the popular 
will, in a council, without any binding obligation of the whole, or a ma- 
jority of the tribes, to compel obedience from the delinquent members. 
It may, however, lead to further deliberations ; and we cannot but regard 
the movement as one which betokens political forethought and purpose. 

Our greatest apprehensions, we must confess, before closing this paper, 
arise from the peculiar geographical position of the Indian territory with 
relation to our own. And this could not, perhaps, have been anticipated 
twenty years ago, when the plan was formed. Our population is on the 
broad move west. Nothing, it is evident, will now repress them this side 
of the Pacific. The snowy heights of the Rocky Mountains are already 
scaled ; and we but apply the results of the past to the future, in saying 
that the path which has been trod by a few, will be trod by many. Now, 
the removed tribes are precisely in the centre of this path. From the 
mouth of the Platte, or the Konza, the great highway to the Oregon 
must run west. Whether this new tide of emigration will be successful 
or unsuccessful, will those who compose it spare to trample on the red 
man Will they suddenly become kind to him, to whom they have 
been unkind ? Will they cease to desire the lands which their children 
want ? Will they consent to see the nation separated by an Indian 
state ? Will they award honors, nay, justice, to that state } Twenty- 
years will answer these questions. 



Choctaws. — An appropriation of $113,000 has been made by Con- 
gress for the removal and subsistence of the Choctaws now in Missis- 
sippi. There are upwards of six thousand in our state, comprising 
about eleven hundred families. These are under Colonels Johnson and 
Fisher. The half of the money due the Indians, and to be paid after 
their landing in their new homes in the West, is to be funded. This 
will eflectualiy prevent all speculation, and enable the Indians to ohtain 
and hold what is due them. Those now in the state are guarded against 
all coercive measures for their removal, and left free to go West or 
remain in their homes in Mississippi. — Southern Reformer. 



NURSERY AND CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 



V 



The tickenagun, or Indian cradle, is an object of great pride with an 
Indian mother. She gets the finest kind of broad cloth she possibly can 
to make an outer swathing band for it, and spares no pains in ornament- 
ing it with beads and ribbons, worked in various figures. In the lodges 
of those who can aflbrd it, there is no article more showy and pretty than 
the full bound cradle. The frame of the cradle itself is a curiosity. It 
consists of three pieces. The vertebral board, which supports the back, 
the hoop or foot-board, which extends tapering up each side, and the arch 
or bow, which springs from each side, and protects the face and head. 
These are tied together with deer's sinews or pegged. The whole struc- 
ture is very light, and is carved with a knife by the men, out of the lindea 
or maple tree. 

Moss constitutes the bed of the infant, and is also put between the child's 
feet to keep them apart and adjust the shape of them, according to custom. 
A one-point blanket of the trade, is the general and immediate wrapper of 
the infant, within the hoop, and the ornamented swathing band is wound 
around the whole, and gives it no little resemblance to the case of a small 
mummy. As the bow passes directly above the face and eyes, trinkets 
are often hung upon this, to amuse it, and the child gets its first ideas of 
ornament from these. The hands are generally bound down with the 
body, and only let out occasionally, the head and neck being the only part 
which is actually free. So bound and laced, hooped and bowed, the little 
fabric, with its inmate, is capable of being swung on its mother's back, and 
carried through the thickest forest without injury. Should it even fall no 
injury can happen. The bow protects the only exposed part of the frame. 
And when she stops to rest, or enters the lodge, it can be set aside like any 
other household article, or hung up by the cradle strap on a peg. Nothing, 
indeed, could be better adapted to the exigencies of the forest life. And in 
such tiny fabrics, so cramped and bound, and bedecked and trinketed, 
their famous Pontiacs and King Philips, and other prime warriors, were 
once carried, notwithstanding the skill they afterwards acquired in wield- 
ing the lance and war club. 

The Indian child, in truth, takes its first lesson in the art of cndurame^ 
in the cradle. When it cries it need not be unbound to nurse it. If the 
mother be young, she must put it to sleep herself If she have younger 
sisters or daughters they share this care with her. If the lodge be roomy 
and high, as lodges sometimes are, the cradle is suspended to the top poles 

390 



CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 



391 



to be swung. If not, or the weather be fine, it is tied to the limb of a 
tree, with small cords made from the inner bark of the linden, and a vi- 
bratory motion given to it from head to foot by the mother or some atten- 
dant. The motion thus communicated, is that of the pendulum or com- 
mon swing, and m.iy be supposed to be the easiest and most agreeable 
possible to the chill It is from this motion that the leading idea of the 
cradle song is taken. 

1 ha VP often seen the red mother, or perhaps a sister of the child, lei- 
surely su'inofiiig a pretty ornamented cradle to and fro in this way, in 
order to put the child to sleep, or simply to amuse it. 'i'he following spe- 
cimens of these wilJ-wood chaunts, or wigwam lullabys, are taken from 
my notes npon this subject, during many years of familiar intercourse with 
the abori^f-inals. If they are neither numerous nor attractive, placed side 
by side with the rich nursery stores of more refined life, it is yet a plea- 
sant fict to have found such things even existing at all amongst a people 
supposed to possess so few of the amenities of life, and to have so little 
verS'itility of character. 

Meagre as these specimens seem, they yet involve no small degree of 
philological diligence, as nothing can be more delicate than the inflexions 
of these pretty chaunts, and the Indian woman, like her white sister, gives 
a delicacy of intonation to the roughest words of her language. The 
term wa-wa often introduced denotes a wave of the air, or the circle des- 
cribed by the motion of an object through it, as we sa}'-, swing, swing, a 
term never applied to a wave of water. The latter is callec tegoo, or if it 
be crowned with foam, beta. 

In introducing the subjoined specimens of these simple see saws of the 
lodffe and forest chaunts, the writer felt, that they were almost too frail of 
structure to be trusted, without a gentle hand, amidst his rougher materials. 
He is permitted to say, in regard to them, that they have been exhibited to 
Mrs. Elizabeth Oakes Smith, herself a refined enthusiast of the woof^s, 
and that the versions from the original given, are from her chaste snA 
truthful pen. 

In the following arch little song, the reader has only to imagine a play- 
ful girl trying fo put a restless child to sleep, who pokes its little head, with 
black hair and keen eyes over the side of the cradle, and the girl sings, 
imitating its own piping tones. 



Ah wa nain 'I (Who is this?) 

Ah wa nain? (Who is this?) 

Wa yau was sa — (Giving light — meaning the light of the eye) 

Ko pwasod. (On the top of my lodge.) 



Who is this? who is this? eye-light bringmg 
To the roof of the lodge ? 



392 



CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 



And then she assumes the tone of the little screech owl, and answera— 
Kob kob kob (It is I — the little owl) 

Nim be e zhau (Coming,) 
Kob kob kob (It is I — the little owl) 

Nim be e zhau (Coming,) 
Kit che — kit che. (Down ! down !) 

It is I, it is I, hither swinging, (wa wa) 
Dodge, dodge, baby dodge ; 

And she springs towards it and down goes the little head. This is 
repeated with the utmost merriment upon both sides. 

Who is this, who is this eye-light bringing 

To the roof of my lodge ? 
It is I, it is I, hither swinging, 

Dodge, dodge, baby dodge. 

Here is another, slower and monotonous, but indicating the utmoat 
maternal content : i 

Swinging, swinging, lul la by, 

Sleep, little daughter sleep, 
'Tis your mother watching by, 

Swinging, swinging she will keep, 
Little daughter lul la by. 

'Tis your mother loves you dearest, 

Sleep, sleep, daughter sleep, 
Swinging, swinging, ever nearest, 

Baby, baby, do not weep; 
Little daughter, lul la by, ^ 

Swinging, swinging, lul la by, 

Sleep, sleep, little one. 
And thy mother will be nigh — 

Swing, swing, not alone — 
Little daughter, lul la by. 

This of course is exceedingly simple, but be it remembered these 
chaunts are always so in the most refined life. The ideas are the same, 
that of tenderness and protective care only, the ideas being few, the lan- 
guage is in accordance. To my mind it has been a matter of extreme 
interest to observe how almost identical are the expressions of affection in 
all states of society, as though these primitive elements admit of no pro- 
gress, but are perfect m themselves. I'he e-we-yea of the Indian woman 
is entirely analogous to the lul la by of our language, and will be seen to 
be exceedingly pretty in itself. 



CRADLE SONGS OP THE FOREST. 



393 



2. The original words of this, with their literal import, are also added, 
to preserve the identity. 

(a.) 

Wa wa — wa wa — wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.) 

Nebann — nebaun — nebaun, (Sleep thou, thrice.) I 

Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter, lullaby.) ' 

Wa wa — wa wa — wa wa, (Swinging, thrice.) 

Nedaunis-ais, e we yea, (Little daughter lullaby.) 

(b.) 

Keguh, ke gun ah wain e ma, (Your mother cares for you.) 
Nebaun — nebaun — nebaun, e we yea, (Sleep, thrice, lullaby.) 
Kago, saigizze-kain, nedaunis-ais, (Do not fear, my little daughter.) 
Nebaun — nebaun — nebaun, (Sleep, thrice.) 
Kago, saigizze-kain, wa wa, e we yea, (third line repeated.) 

(c.) 

Wa wa — wa wa — wa we yea, (Swinging, twice, lullaby.) 

Kaween neezheka kediausee, (Not alone art thou.) 

Ke kan nau wai, ne me go, suhween, (Your mother is caring for you.) 

Nebaun — nebaun — neJaunis-ais, (Sleep, sleep, my little daughter.) 

Wa wa — wa wa — wa we yea, (Swinging, &.c. lullaby.) 

Nebaun — nebaun — nebaun, (Sleep! sleep! sleep.*) 

THE HARE AND THE LYNX. 

3. The story of the Wabose, (Hare,) and the Pighieu, (Lynx,) will at 
once remind the reader of the so often recited tale of little Red Riding 
Hood, in which the reciter imitates the tones of the wolf, and the little nur- 
sery listener hears with a growing amazement, and starts as if he felt 
the real wolf's teeth at the close. 

This story is partly spoken and partly sung. The Teller imitating al- 
ternately the Hare, and its enemy, the Lynx. 

There was once, she says, a little Hare living in the lodge with its grand- 
mother, who was about to send it back to its native land. When it had 
gone but a little way, a Lynx appeared in the path, and began to sing, 

* These translations are entirely literal — the verbs to " sleep" and to " fear," requir- 
ing the imperative mood, second person, present tense, throughout. In rendering the term 

wa-wa" in the participial form some doubt may exist, but this has been terminated by the 
idea of the existing motion, which is clearly implied, although the word is not marked 
by the usual form of the participle in ing. The phrase lul-la-by, is the only one in our 
language, which conveys the evident meaning of the choral term e-we-yea. The sub- 
stantive verb is wanting, iji the first line of b. and the third of c. in the two forms 
the verb, to care, or take care of a person ; but it is present in the phrase " kediausee" 
in the second line of c. These facts are stated, not that they are of the slightest inte- 
rest to the common reader, but that they may be exam'ned by philologists, or persoiu 
curioua in the Indian grammar. 



394 



CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOREST. 



Where pretty white one ? 
Where little white one, 
Where do you go ? 

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee ! cried the Hare, and ran back to 
its grandmother. "See, grandmother," said the timid little creature, 
what the Lynx is saying to me," and she repeated the song. " Ho ! 
Nosis," that is to say, courage my grandchild, run along, and tell him you 
are going home to your native land: so the Hare went back and be- 
gan to sing, 

To the point of land I roam. 
For there is the white one's home, — 
Whither I go. 

Then the Lynx looked at the trembling Hare, and began to sing, 

Little white one, tell me why 
Like to leather, thin and dry, 
Are your pretty ears ? 

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! cried the Hare, and she ran back 
to her grandmother, and repeated the words. " Go Nosis, and tell him 
your uncles fixed them so, when they came from the South." So 
the Hare ran back and sang, 

From the south my uncles came, 
And they fixed my ears the same, — 
Fixed my slender ears. 

and then the Hare laid her pink ears upon her shoulders, and was about 
to go on, but the Lynx began to sing^ again,-— 

Why, why do you go away? 
Pretty white one, can't you stay ? 
Tell me why your little feet. 
Are made so dry and very fleet? 

Tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! tshwee! said the poor little Hare, and she 
ran back again to the lodge to ask again. " Ho ! Nosis !" said the grand- 
mother, who was old and tired, do not mind him, nor listen to him, ftor 
answer him, but run on." 

The Hare obeyed, and ran as fast as she could. When she came to 
the spot where the Lynx had been, she looked round, but there was no 
one there, and she ran on. But the Lynx had found out all about the 
little Hare, and knew she was going across to the neck of land ; and he 
had nothing to do but reach it first, and waylay her ; which he did : and 
when the innocent creature came to the place, and had got almost home, 
the Lynx sprang out of the thicket and eat her up. 



CRADLE SONGS OP THE FOREST, 



395 



The original chant, omitting the narrative part as given above, runs in 
(his fashion, word for word. 

Lynx. 



Hare. 



Lynx, 



Hare. 



Lynx. 



Tah kau 


(where ah !) 


Tah hau 


(where ah !) 


Wa hose 


(little white one) 


Wa hose 


(little white one) 


Ke te e zha 


(are you going?) 


Na kwa oushing 


(to the point of land) 


Ain dah nuk e aum baun (in my native country) 


In de e zha 


(I go.) 


Au neen 


(what !) 


Au neen 


(what!) 


A nau be kaus o yun aig (causes it,) 


Kish ke mun ing 


(why like stripes of leather) 


Ish tow ug a una, 


(are your ears ?) 


Nish ish sha ug 


(my uncles,) 


sha wun e nong 


(when from the south) 


Ke e zha waud 


(they came,) 


Ningee aizh e goob un eeg 


(they did fix me so.) 


Tah kau 


(where ah !) 


Tah kau 


(where ah !) 


Wa hose 


(little white one,) 


Wa bose 


(little white one,) 


Ke de e zha 


(are you going?) 


Au neen 


(why?) 


Na naub o kos o yun 


(look they so,) 


Kish ke mun a, 


(like dry bits of leather,) 


1 izh e zida una, 


(your feet ha ! ) 



4. THE KITE AND THE EAGLE. 

This is a specimen of Indian satire. The coward is boastful when 
there is no danger : pretension succeeds in the absence of real merit ! A 
Kite was boasting how high he could fly, and ventured to speak dis- 
paragingly of the eagle, not knowing that the latter overheard him. He 
began to sing in a loud voice, 

I upward fly 
I ! I alone disdain the air 
Till I hang as by a hair 

Poised in the sky. 

The Eagle answers disdainfully, looking down from a branch far 
above the Kite, 



CRADLE SONGS OP THE FOREST* 



Who mounts the sky 'I 
Who is this, with babbling tongue 
As he had on the storm-cloud hung, 

Who flies so high ? 

The Kite in a shrinking, feeble voice, 
The great Khakake 
I've sometimes thought he flew so high 
That he must see within the sky 
The dawn awake. 

The Eagle despises him, and yet cannot forbear to answer, 

I spurn you all, ye prating throng 
How often have I passed ye by 
When my broad pinions fleet and strong, 
Soared up where leapt the thunder cry i 
Nor ye with feeble wing might dare, 
I'hose hill-tops high, to mount in air. 

and he soared off) up, up into the sky till the boaster could not behold 
him. But no sooner was the Kite left alone to himself than he began to 
sing again so as to be heard on every side, 

I upward fly 
I, I alone disdain the air 
Till I hang as by a hair 

Poised in the sky. 

Literally thus. 

Kite. Neen a (1 alone) 



Neen a (I alone) 

Ta wa e ya (can go up) 

Bai bwau 
As shau dau 



so as to seem as if hanging 

Wa ke ge naun 



by a hair 



O shau wush ko geezhig oong a (from the blue sky.) 
Eagle. Au wa nain (Who is this?) 

Au wa nain (Who is this?) 

Tshe mud je wa wa (with babbling tongue, who boasts) 

Ke pirn o saing. (of flying so high ?) 

Kite (shrinkingly) replies, " Oh I was only singing of the great Kha- 
kake, it is he who is said to fly so high." 

Eagle disdainfully replies, '■ Tshe mud je wa wa, that is great bab- 
bler, or bad-tongue, 3'ou are below my notice," &c., and soars aloft. 

Kite, resuming its boasting tone, as soon as the eagle is out of hearing. 



CRADLE SONGS OF THE FOHEST. 



397 



Keen a (I alone &c., the whole being a 

Neen a repetition of the first part.) 

Ta we ya 
Bai bwau 
As sbau dau 
Wa ke ge naun, 

O shau wush ko, geezhig oong a. ^ 

5. THE RAVEN AND WOODPECKER. 

A Still farther view of Indian manners and opinions is hid under this 
simple chant. Opinion among the forest race, makes the whole animated 
creation cognizant and intelligent of their customs. 

A young married woman is supposed to go out from the lodge, and 
busy herself in breaking up dry limbs, and preparing wood, as if to lay 
in a store for a future and approaching emergency. 

A raven, perched on a neighbouring tree, espies her, at her work, and 
begins to sing ; assuming the expected infant to be a boy. 

In dosh ke zhig o mun 
In dosh ke zhig o mun 
In dosh ke zhig o mun 
My eyes! my eyes! my eyes! Alluding to the boy (and future man) 
killing animals as well as men, whose eyes will be left, as the singer anti- 
cipates, to be picked out by ravenous birds. So early are the first notions 
of war implanted. 

A woodpecker, sitting near, and hearing this song, replies ; assuming 
the sex of the infant to be a female. 

Ne mos sa mug ga 
Ne mos sa mug ga 
Ne mos sa mug ga. 
My worms ! my worms ! my worms ! Alluding to the custor^ of the 
female's breaking up dry anu Jozy wood, out of which, it could pick its 
favourite food, being the mosa or wood-worm. 

Want of space induces the writer to defer, to a future number, the re 
mainder of his collection of these cradle and nursery chants. They con- 
stitute in his view, rude as they are. and destitute of metrical attractions, 
a chapter in the history of the human heart, in the savage phasis, which 
deserves to be carefully recorded. It has fallen to his lot, to observe more 
perhaps, in this department of Indian life, than ordinary, and he would not 
acquit himself of his duty to the race, were he to omit these small links 
out of their domestic and social chain. The tie which binds the mother 
to the child, in Indian life, is a very strong one, and it is conceived to 
admit of illustration in this manner. It is not alone in the war-path and 



398 



CRADLE SONGS OP THE FOREST. 



the council, that the Red Man is to be studied. To appreciate his whole 
character, in its true light, he must be followed into his lodge, and viewed 
in his seasons of social leisure and retirement. If there be any thina- 
warm and abiding in the heart or memory of the man, when thus at ease, 
surrounded by his family, it must come out here ; and hence, indeed, the 
true value of his lodge lore, of every kind. 

It'^is t)utof the things mental as well as physiological, that pertain to 
maternity, that philosophy must, in the end, construct the true ethnological 
chain, that binds the human race, in one comprehensive system of unity. 



LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 

The Polynesfan languages, like those of the Algonquin group of North 
America, have inclusive and exclusive pronouns to express the words 
we, ours, and us. They have also causative verbs such as, to make afraid, 
to make happy, &c., but while there appears this analogy in grammatical 
principles, there are some strong points of disagreement, and there appears 
to be no analogy whatever in the sounds of the language. There are 
eight well characterized dialects in the Polynesian family. They are the 
Tahitian, the Owyhee, [Havi^aiian] Marquesan, or Washingtonian, Aus- 
tral island, Hervey island, Samoan, Tongatabu, and New Zealand. In 
seven of these, the name for God is Atua, in the eighth, or Tongua dialect, 
it is Otua. Great resemblances exist in all the vocabularies. Much of 
the actual difference arises from exchanges of the consonants r and I, 
h and s, and a few others. They possess the dual number. The scheme 
of the pronouns is very complete, and provides for nearly all the recondite 
distinctions of person. Where the vocabulary fails in words to designate 
objects which were unknown to them before their acquaintance with 
Europeans, the missionaries have found it to fall in better with the genius 
of the language, to introduce new words from the Greek, with some modi- 
fications. Thus they have introduced hipo for horse, arenio for Iamb, 
areto for bread, and baplizp for baptism. 

To continue faithful during a course of prosperity, says Xenophon, hath 
nothing wonderful in it. but when any set of men continue steadily attached 
to friends in adversity, they ought, on that account, to be eternally re- 
membered. 

There are but two sources only, says Polybius, from whence any real 
benefit can be derived, our own misfortunes and those that have happened 
to other men. 

One wise counsel, says Euripides, is better than the strength of many. 



EARLY SKETCHED )F INDIAN WOMEN. 



209 



From " New England Prospect^ 
CHAPTER XIX. 

OF THEIR WOMEN, THEIR DISPOSITIONS, EMPLOYMENTS, USAGE BY THEIR HUSBANDS, THEIR 
APPARELL, AND MODESTY. 

To satisfie the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might 
thinke their sex forgotten, or not worthy a record, let them peruse these 
few lines, wherein they may see their owne happinesse, if weighed in the 
womans ballance of these ruder hidiayis^ who scome the tuterino^s of their 
wives, or to admit them as their equals, though their qualities an I inJiis- 
trious deservings may justly claime the preheminence, and command bet- 
ter usage and more conjugall esteeme, their persons and featuves being 
every way correspondent, their qualifications more excellent, being more 
loving, pittifull, and modest, milde, provident, and laborious than their 
lazie husbands. Their employments be many: First their Lnilding of 
houses, whose frames are formed like our garden-arbouis, sotntthing 
more round, very strong and handsome, covered with close-j.yrought mats 
of their owne weaving, which deny entrance to any drop of raine, though 
it come both fierce and long, neither can the piercing North winde, finde 
a crannie, through which he can conveigh his cooling breath, they be 
warmer than our English houses ; at the top is a square bole for the 
smoakes evacuation, which in rainy weather is covered with a phiver* 
these bee such smoakie dwellings, that when there is good fires, they are 
not able to stand upright, but lie all along under the smoake, never nsin^ 
any stooles or chaires, it being as rare to see an Indian sit on a stoole at 
home, as it is strange to see an English man sit on his heels abroad. 
Their houses are smaller in the Summer, when their families be dispersed, 
by reason of heate and occasions. In Winter they make some filtie or 
thereescore foote long, fortie or fiftie men being inmates under one roofe ; 
and as is their husbands occasion these poore tectonists are often troubled 
like snailes, to carrie their houses on their backs sometimes to fishing- 
places, other times to hunting places, after that to a planting place, where 
.t abides the longest : an other work is their planting of corne, wherein 
they exceede our English husband-men, keeping it so cleare with their 
Clamme shell-hooes, as if it were a garden rather than a corne-field, not 
suffering a choaking weede to advance his audacious head above their in- 
fant corne, or an undermining worme to spoile his spumes. Their corne 
being ripe, they gather it, and drying it hard in the Sunne, conveigh it to 
their barnes, which be great holes digged in the ground in forme of a 
brasse po/, seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne, cover- 
ing it from the inquisitive search of their gurmandizing husbands, who 
would eate up both their allowed portion, and reserved seede, if they 
knew where to finde it. But our hogges having found a way to un- 
hindgft their barne doores, and robbe their garners, they are glad to im 



400 



EARLY SKETCHES OF INDIAN WOMEN. 



plore their husbands helpe to roule the bodies of trees over their holes, to 
prevent those pioners, whose theeverie they as much hate as their flesh. 
An other of their employments is their Summer processions to get Lob- 
sters for their husbands, wherewith they baite their hookes when theygoe 
a fishing for Basse or Codfish. This is an every dayes walke, be the 
weather cold or hot, the waters rough or calme, they must dive sometimes 
over head and eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands 
with a churlish nippe, and bids them adiew. The tide being spent, they 
trudge home two or three miles, wnth a hundred weight of Lobsters at 
their backs, and if none, a hundred scoules meete them at home, and a 
hungry belly for two days after. Their husbands having caught any fish, 
they bring it in their boates as farre as they can by water, and there leave 
it ; as it was their care to catch it, so it must be their w'ives paines to fetch 
it home, or fast: which done, they must dresse it and cooke it, dish it, and 
present it, see it eaten over their shoulders ; and their loggerships having 
filled their paunches, their sweete lullabies scramble for their scrappes. 
In the Summer these Indian women when Lobsters be in their plenty 
and prime, they drie them to keepe for Winter, erecting scaffolds in the 
hot sun-shine, making fires likewise underneath them, by whose smoake 
the flies are expelled, till the substance remains hard and drie. In this 
manner they drie Basse and other fishes without salt, cutting them very 
thinne to dry suddainely, before the flies spoile them, or the raine moist 
them, having a speciall care to hang them in their smoakie houses, in the 
night and dankish weather. 

In Summer they gather flagges, of w^hich they make Matts for houses, 
and Hempe and rushes, with dying stufTe of which they make curious 
baskets wnth intermixed colours and portractures of antique Imagerie. 
these baskets be of all sizes from a quart to a quarter, in wnich they carry 
their luggage. In wintertime they are their husbunds Caterers, trudging 
to the Clamm bankes for their belly timber, and their Porters to lugge 
home their Venison which their lazinesse exposes to the Woolves till they 
impose it upon their wives shoulders. They likewise sew their husbands 
shooes, and w^eave coates of Turkie feathers, besides all their ordinary 
household drudgerie which daily lies upon them. * * 

***** [Of the treatment of 

babes the writer says] : The young Infant being greased and sooted, wrapt 
in a beaver skin, bound to his good behaviour with his feeteupon a board 
two foote long and one foote broade, his face exposed to all nipping 
weather ; this little Pappov.se travells about with his bare footed mother 
to paddle in the ice Clammbanks after three or foure dayes of age have 
sealed his passeboard and his mothers recoverie. For their carriage it is 
very civill, smiles being the greatest grace of their mirth ; their musick 
is lullabies to quiet their children, w^ho generally are as quiet as if they 
had neither spleene or lungs. To hear one of these Indians unseene, a 



EARLY SKETCHES OP INDIAN WOMEN. 



401 



good eare might easily mistake their untaught voyce for the warbling of 

a well tuned instrument. Such command have tliey of their voices. 
• * • * # * 

Commendable is their milde carriage and obedience to their husbands, not- 
withstanding all this their customarie churlishnesse and salvage inhu- 
manitie, not seeming to delight in frownes or offering to word it with their 
lords, not presuming to proclaime their female superiority to the usurping* 
of the least title of their husbands charter, but rest themselves content un- 
der their belplesse condition, counting it the womans portion : since the- 
English arrivall comparison hath made them miserable, for seeing the 
kind usage of the English to their wives, they doe as much condemne 
their husbands for unkind nesse, and commend the English for their love. 
As their husbands commending themselves for their wit in keeping their 
wives industrious, doe condemne the English for their folly in spoyling 
good working creatures. These women resoit often to the English 
houses, where fares cum f'lribvs covgregatcE*^ in Sex I meane, they do 
somewhat ease their miserie by complaining and seldome part without a 
releefe: If her husband come to seeke for his Squaw an^ beginne to blus- 
ter, the English woman betakes her to her armes which are the war- 
like Ladle, and the scalding liquors, threatening blistering to the naked 
runnaway, who is soon expelled by such liquid comminations. In a word 
to conclude this womans historic, their love to the English hath deserved 
no small esteeme, ever presenting them some thing that is either rare or 
desired, as Strawberries, Hurtleberries, Rasberries, Gooseberries, Cher- 
ries, Plummes, Fish, and other such gifts as their poore treasury yeelds 
them. But now it may be, that this relation of the churlish and inhu- 
mane behaviour of these ruder Indians towards their patient wives, may 
confirme some in the beliefe of an aspersion, which I have often heard 
men cast upon the English there, as if they should learne of the Indians 
to use their wives in the like manner, and to bring them to the same sub- 
jection, as to sit on the lower hand, and to carrie water and the like 
drudgofie : but if my own experience may out ballance an ill-grounded 
scandalous rumour, I doe assure you, upon my credit and reputation, that 
there is no such matter, but the women finde there as much love, respect, 
and ease, as here in old England. I will not deny, but that some poore 
people may carrie their owne water, and doe not the poorer sort in Eng- 
land doe the same; witnesse your ZiO//r/o7i Tankard -bearers, and your 
counlrie-cottagers 1 But this may well be knowne to be nothing, but the 
rancorous venome of some that beare no good will to the plantation. For 
what neede they carrie water, seeing every one hath a Spring at ' his 
doore, or the Sea by his house? Thus much for the satisfaction of 
women, touching this entrenchment upon their prerogative, as also con 
cerning the relation of these Indians Squawes. 

* Equals assembled with equals. 
26 



PAWNEE BARBARITY. 



That the tribes west of the Missouri, and beyond the pale of the 
ordinary influence of civilization, should retain some shocking custoniSj 
which, if ever prevalent among the more favoured tribes east of the Mis- 
sissippi and the AlJeghenies, have long disappeared, may be readily con- 
ceived. Wild, erratic bands, who rove over immense plains on horseback, 
with bow and lance, who plunge their knives and arrows daily into the 
carcasses of the buffalo, the elk and the deer, and who are accustomed to 
sights of blood and carnage, cannot escape the mental influence of these 
sanguinary habits, and must be, more or less, blunted in their conceptions 
and feelings. Where brute life is so recklessly taken, there cannot be the 
same nice feeling and sense of justice, which some of the more favoured 
tribes possess, with respect to taking away human life. Yet, it could 
hardly have been anticipated, that such deeds as we are now called upon 
to notice, would have their place even in the outskirts of the farther "Far 
West," and among a people so sunk and degraded in their moral propen- 
sities, as the Pawnees. But the facts are well attested. 

In the fierce predatory war carried on between the Pawnees and Sioux, 
acts of blood and retaliation, exercised on their prisoners, are of frequent 
occurrence. In the month of Febuary, 1838, the Pawnees captured a 
Sioux girl only fourteen years of age. They carried her to their camp 
on the west of the Missouri, and deliberated what should be done with 
her. It is not customary to put female captives to death, but to make 
slaves of them. She, however, was doomed to a harder fate, but it waf 
carefully concealed from her, for the space of some sixty or seventy day.* 
During all this time she was treated well, and had comfortable lodgings 
and food, the same as the rest enjoyed. On the 22nd of April, the chif fs 
held a general council, and when it broke up, it was announced that 1 er 
doom was fixed, but this was still carefully concealed from her. This 
doom was an extraordinary one, and so far as the object can be deduced^ 
from the circumstances and ceremonies, the national hatred to their ene.nies 
was indulged, by making the innocent non-combatant, a sacrifice to the 
spirit of corn, or perhaps, of vegetable fecundity. 

When the deliberations of the council were terminated, on that day, 
she was brought out, attended by the whole council, and accompanied on 
a visit from lodge to lodge, until she had gone round the whole circle. 
When this round was finished, they placed in her hands a small billet of 
wood and some pamts. The warriors and chiefs then seated themselves 
in a circle. To the first person of distinction she then handed this billet 
of wood and paint; he contributed to this offering, or sort of sarrificial 

402 



i 



PAWNEE BARBARITY. 



403 



charity some wood and paint, then handed it to the next, who did likewise, 
and he passed it to the next, until it had gone the entire rounds, and each 
one had contributed some wood and some paint. She was then conducted 
to the place of execution. For this purpose they had chosen an open 
grassy glade, near a cornfield, where there were a few trees. The spot 
selected was between two of these trees, standing about five feet apart, in 
.he centre of which a small fire was kindled, with the wood thus ceremo- 
niously contributed. Three bars had been tied across, from tree to tree, 
above this fire, at such a graded height, that the points of the blaze, 
when at its maximum, might just reach to her feet. Upon this scaffold 
she was compelled to mount, when a warrior at each side of her held fire 
under her arm pits. When this had been continued as long as they sup- 
posed she could endure the torture, without extinguishing life, at a given 
signal, a band of armed bow-men let fly their darts, and her body, at 
almost the same instant, was pierced with a thousand arrows. These 
were immediately withdrawn, and her flesh then cut with knives, from 
her thighs, arms and body, in pieces not longer than half a dollar, and put 
into little baskets. All this was done before life was quite extinct. 

The field of newly planted corn reached near to this spot. This cora 
had been dropped in the hill, but not covered with earth. The principal 
chief then took of the flesh, and going to a hill of corn, squeezed a drop 
of blood upon the grains. This was done by each one, until all the 
grains put into the ground, had received this extraordinary kind of sprink- 
ling. 

This horrible cruelty took place in the vicinity of Council Blufl[s. 
Offers to redeem the life of the prisoner had been made by the traders, in 
a full council of eighty chiefs and warriors, bui they were rejected. The 
original narrator was an eye witness. He concludes his description by 
adding, that his wife's brother, a Pawnee, hnd been taken prisoner by fhe 
Sioux, in the month of June following, and treated in the same manner. 
Truly, it may be said that the precincts of the wild roving Red man, are 
"full of the abodes of crueky." 



Hunting and war are arts which require to be taught. The Indian 
youth, if they were not furnished with bows and arrows, would never 
learn to kill. The same time spent to teach them war ana huntmg, if 
devoted to teach them letters, would make them readers and writers. Ed- 
ucation is all of a piece. 

Example is more pers^jiasive than precept in teaching an Indian. Tell 
him that he shonia nev*ri u/n.-.h a.cohol, nnd he may not see clearly why ; 
but show him, by your mvariabie practice, that you never Jo, and he may 
be led to confide in your admonitions. 



404 



"the loox uion the lake." 



THE LOOX UrOX THE LAKE." 



BY E. F. HOFFMAX. 
IFrom the Ohippewa.*] 

I LOOKED across the water, 

I bent o'er it and listened, 
I thought it was my lover, 
My true lover's paddle glistened. 
Joyous thus his light canoe would the silver ripples wake. 
But no ! — it is the Loon alone — the loon upon the lake. 
Ah me ! it is the loon alone — the loon upon the lake. 

I see the fallen maple 

Where he stood, his red scarf waving, 
Though waters nearly bury 

Boughs they then were newly laving. 
I hear his last farewell, as it echoed from the brake- 
But no, it is the loon alone — the loon upon the lake, 
Ah me ! it is the loon alone — the loon upon the lake. 

* Nenemoshain nindenaindum 
Meengovveugish abowaugoda 
Aiiewahwas mongoduga, &c.,8ec. 



TO A BraD, SEEN UNDER MY WINDOW IN THE GARDEN. 

By the late Mrs. H. R. Schoolcraft, who was a grand daughter of the war chitt 

Wabojeeg. 

Sweet little bird, thy notes prolong, 

And ease my lonely pensive hours ; 
I love to list thy cheerful song, 

And hear thee chirp beneath the lowers. 

The time allowed for pleasures sweet, 

To thee is short as it is bright, 
Then sing ! rejoice ! before it fleet, 

And cheer me ere you take your flight. 



ODJIBWA SONG. 



The following song, taken from the oral traditions of the north, is con 
nected with a historical incident, of note, in the Indian wars of Canada. 
In 1759, great exertions were made by the French Indian department, 
under Gen. Montcalm, to bring a body of Indians into the valley of the 
lower St. Lawrence, and invitations, for this purpose reached the utmost 
shores of Lake Superior. In one of the canoes from that quarter, which 
was left on their way down, at the lake of Two Mountains, near tne 
mouth of the Utawas, while the warriors proceeded farther, was a Chip- 
pewa girl called Paig-wain-e-osh-e, or the White Eagle, driven by the 
wind. While the party awaited there, the result of events at Gluebec, she 
formed an attachment for a young Algonquin belonging to the French 
mission of the Two Mountains. This attachment was mutual, and gave 
origin to the song, of which the orig^inal wordSj with a literal prose trans- 
lation, are subjoined: 

I. 

la indenaindum 
la indenaindum 
Ma kow we yah 
Nin denaindum we. 

Ah me! when I think of him — when I think of him — ^my sweetheart, 
my Algonquin. 

II. 

Pah bo je aun 
Ne be nau be koning 
Wabi megwissun 
Nene mooshain we 

Odishquagumee. 

As I embarked to return, he put the white wampum around my neck 
— a pledge of truth, my sweetheart, my Algonquin. 

III. 

Keguh wejewin 
^ Ain dah nuk ke yun 
Ningee egobun 
Nene mooshain we 

Odishquagumee. 
I shall go with you, he said, to your native country 
you, my sweetheart — my Algonquin. 



— I shall go with 
405 



406 



ODJIBWA SONG. 



IV. 

Nia! nin de nah dusti 
Wassahwud gushuh 
Aindahnuk ke yaun 
Ke yau niriemooshai wee 

Odishquagumee. 
Alas! I replied — my native country is far, far away- 
my Algonquin. 

V. 

Kai aubik oween 
Ain aube aunin 
Ke we naubee 
Ne ne mooshai we 

Odishquagumee. 

When I looked back again — where we parted, he was still looking 
after me, my sweetheart ; my Algonquin. 

VI. 

Apee nay we ne bow 
Unishe bun 
Aungwash agushing 
Ne ne mooshai we 

Odishquagumee. 

He was still stand mg on a fallen tree — that had fallen into the water 
my sweetheart ; my Algonquin. 

VII. 

Nia ! indenaindum 
Nia ! in denaindum 
Ma kow we yuh 
Nin de nain dum we 

Odishquagumee. 

Alas ! when I think of him — when I think of him — ^It is when I 
think of him ; my Algonquin. 



Eloquence on the part of the speakers, not so much the result of 
superior force of thought, as of the strong and clear positions of right, in 
which they have been placed by circumstances. It is the force of truth, 
by which we are charmed. 

An Indian war song, sung in public, by the assembled warriors on lUe 
outbreak of hostilities, is a declaration of war. 



— my sweetheart ; 



407 



NIAGARA, AN ALLEGORY. 

An old grey man on a nfiountain lived, 

He had dHuuhters Ibnr and one, 
And a tall bright lodge of the betula bark 

That glittered in the sun. 

He lived on the very highest top, 

For he w^as a hunter free. 
Where he could spy on the clearest day, 

Gleanss of the distant sea. 

Come out — come out ! cried the youngest one, 

Let us off to look at the sea, 
And out they ran in their gayest robes, ' 

And skipped and ran with glee. 

Come Su,* come Mi,t come Hu.j come Sa,§ 

Cried laughing little Er,|| 
Let ns go to yonder broad blue deep, 

Where the breakers foam and roar. 

And on they scampered by valley and wood, 

By earth and air and sky. 
Till they came to a steep where the bare rocks stood. 

In a precipice mountain high. 

Inya !][ cried Er, here's a dreadful leap, 

But we are gone so far, 
That if we flinch and return in fear, 

Nos,+* he will cry ha ! ha! 

Now each was clad in a vesture light, 

That floated far behind, 
With sandals of frozen water drops, 

And wings of painted wind. 

And down they plunged with a merry skip, 

Like birds that skim the plain : 
And hey! they cried let us up and try 

And down the steep again. 

And np and down the daughters skipped. 

Like crirls on ■,^ holiday, 
And laughed ontriirht, at the sport and foam_ 

They called Niagara. 

If yR would see a sight so rare, 

Where nature's in her glee, 
Go. view the spot in the wide wild west, 

The land of the brave and free. 

But mark — their shapes are only seen |; 

In Hmcy's deepest play. 
But she plainly shews their wings and feet 

In the dancmg sunny spray. 

• Superior. t Michigan. t Huron. § St. Claro. || Erie. 

' A» exclamation of wonder and surpri/.R. — Odj. Ian. ** My father, — ib 



A PSALM. 



OR SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY; AND A CONFESSION OF SIN, ADDRESSED 
TO THE AUTHOR OF LIFE, IN THE ODJIBWA- ALGONQUIN TONGUE. 

BY THE LATE MRS. HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 

1. Gaitshe minno pimaudizzeyun, Gezha Monedo, gezhigong- aibeyun 

2. Keen, maumauwaikumig waozhemigoyun. 

3. Keen, kah ozhieeyong, keen gaugegaikumig, kai nuhwauneme* 
j'ong, aikoobemaudizzeyong. 

4. Keen, kainuhwaubaimeyong, geezhig tibbikuk tibishko. 

5. Keen, Keozheahn-geezhik-geezis, dibbik-geezis, auniingug gia. 

6. Keen, kegeozhetoan ishe kimmevvung, gia tshe annimikeeaug, tshe 
sai sai yung, tshe sogepoog gia. 

7. Keen kau ozhciyong tshe unnewegauboweyaung, kakinnuk kau 
ozheud jig akeeng. 

8. Kee, gemishemin odjechaugwug, wekaukaine bosigoog. Kee 
gemishemin kebauzhigo kegvviss Jesus Christ, tshe oonjenebood neeno- 
wind. 

9. Mozhug issuh nemudjee inaindumin, kngait mozhug nemudjee-eki- 
domin ; nahwudj neminwaindumin tshe mudjee-dodunjaung. 

10. Kagaitego me kaisoondje izhauyaungebun mudjee Moneto. 

11. Showaineraishinaiim, Gezha Monedo. 
J2.. Showainemishinaum, Jesus Christ. 

13. Maishkoodjetoan ne mudjee-odai-enaunin. 

14. Meezhishenaun edush oushke odaiyun. 

15. Apaidush nah saugeigsayun, gia dush todumaung kau izhe gugeek- 
wayun. 

16. Me ozhissinaum odaiyun tshe minwaindumaung, tshe aiinahme 
autogoyun. 

17. Showainim neendunahwaitmaugunenaunig unishenaubaig. 

18. Showainim kukinnuh menik pemaudizzejig akeeng. 

19. Showainemishenaum kaidokoo pemaudizzeyong, appe dush nee- 
boy on g. 

20. Showainemishenaum neen jeechaugonaunig tshe izhowaud keen. 

21. Kaugegaikumig edush tshe menawaunegooz eyong ozaum ne 
mudje-pemaudizzewin auno unnahmeyauyongin. 

22. Kauween edush kewee pemaudizzewin, kishpin aitah appainemo- 
yong Kegwiss Jesus Christ. 

23. Aioetainemud kegwiss showainemishenaum. Kunnah gai kunnah 

408 



A PSALM. 



409 



TRANSLATION. 

I. Great good author of Life, Gezha Monedo, abiding in the heavens 
2 Thou hast made all things. 

3. Thou art the giver, — Thou, the everlasting preserver of life. 

4. Thou hast guarded me, by day and by night. 

5. Thou hast made the sun and moon, and the stars. 

6. Thou makest the rain, the thunder, the hail, and the snows. 

7. Thou didst make man to stand upright, and has placed him over all 
that is on the earth. 

8. Thou hast given us souls, that will never die. Thou hast sent thy 
son Jesus Christ to die for us. 

9. Continually are our thoughts evil, and truly, our words are evil con- 
tinually. 

10. Verily, we deserve punishment with the Spirit of Evil. 

I I. Show pity on us, Gezha Monedo. 

12. Show pity on us, Jesus Christ. 

1 3. Reform our wicked hearts. 

14. Give us new hearts. 

15. May we love thee with all our hearts, and by our acts obey thy 
precepts, (or sayings.) 

16. Give us hearts to delight in prayer. 

17. Show mercy to all our kindred, unishenaubaig, or common people, 
(means exclusively the Red Men.) 

IS. Show mercy to all who live on the earth. 

19. Pity us, and befriend us, living and dying, 

20. And receive our souls to thyself. 

21. Ever to dvi^ell in thine abiding place of happiness. 

22. Not in our own frail strength of life, do we ask this ; but alone in 
the name of Jesus Christ. 

23. Grant us thy mercy, in the name of thy Son. So be it ever. ' 
Those who take an interest in the structure of the Indian languages, 

may regard the above, as an vwproinsed specimen of the capacity of this 
particular dialect for the expression of scripture truth. The writer, who 
from early years was a member of the church, had made a translation of 
the Lords prayer, and, occasionally, as delicate and declining health per- 
mitted, some other select pieces from the sacred writings, and hymns, of 
which, one or two selections may, perhaps, hereafter be made. 



The distinction betwem the active and passive voice, in the Odjibwa 
language, is formed by the inflection ego. 

Ne sageau, I love. 

Ne sageau-e^o, I am loved. 



TRABITIOJIARY WAR SONGS 



OF THE 

ODJIBWA ALGONCIUINS. 

Whoever has heard an Indian war song, and witnessed an Indian war 
dance, must be satisfied that the occasion wakes up all the fire and energy 
of the Indian's soul. His flashing eye — his muscular energy, as he 
begins the dap.ce — his violent gesticulation as he raises his war-cry — the 
whole frame and expression of the man, demonstrate this. And long 
before ft comes to his turn to utter his stave, or portion of the chant, his 
mind has been worked up to the most intense point of excitement: his 
imagination has pictured the enemy — the ambush and the onset — the vic- 
tory and the bleeding victim, writhing under his prowess: in imagination 
he has already stamped him under foot, and torn off his reeking scalp: 
he has seen the eagles hovering in the air, ready to pounce on the dead 
carcass, as soon as the combatants quit the field. 

It would require strong and graphic language to give descriptive ut- 
terance, in the shape of song, to all he has fancied, and seen and feels on 
the subject. He, himself, makes no such effort. Physical excitement 
has absorbed his energies. He is in no mood for calm and connected 
descriptions of battle scenes. He has no stores of measured rhymes to 
fall back on. All he can do is to utter brief, and often highly symbolic 
expressions of courage — of defiance — of indomitable rage. His feet 
stamp the ground, as if he would shake it to its centre. The inspiring 
drum and mystic rattle communicate new energy to every step, while 
they serve, by the observance of the most exact time, to concentrate his 
energy. His very looks depict the spirit of rage, and his yells, uttered 
quick, slj,arp, and cut off by the application of the hand to the mouth, are 
startling and horrific. 

Under such circumstances, a few short and broken sentpnces are 
enough to keep alive the theme in his mind ; and he is not probably con- 
scious of the fact, that, to an unimpassioned and calm listener, with note 
book in hand, there is not suflicient said to give col erence to the sonir. 
And that such a song, indeed, under the best auspices, is a mere wild 
rhapsody of martial thought, poured out from time to time, in detached 
sentences, which are, so to say, cemented into lines by a flexible chorus 
and known tune. The song and the music are all of a piece. Vivid 
and glowing, and poetic pictures will float in such a train, and often strike 

410 



TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. 



411 



the imagination by their graphic tru^h and boldness; but the poet must 
took elsewhere for finished melody, and refined and elaborate composition. 

The Indian is to be viewed here, as elsewhere, as being in the highest 
state of his phydcal^ not of his mental phasis. Such glimmerings may 
however be picked out of these warlike rhapsodies, as denote that he is of 
a noble and independent tone of thinking. We shall at least enable the 
reader to judge. The following specimens, which have been derived from 
actors in the depths of the forest, consist of independent songs, or stanzas, 
each of which is sung by a different or by the same warrior, while the 
dance is in progress. The words have been taken dowVi from a young 
Chippewa warrior of lake Superior, of the name of Che che-gwy-ung. 
It will be perceived that there is a unity in the theme^ while each warrior 
exercises the freest scope of expression. This unity I have favoured by 
throwing out such stanzas as mar it, and afterwards arranging them 
together. 

WAR SONG. 

a. In beginning this song the warrior has turned his eyes to the clouds. 
O sha wan ong (From the place of the south) 

Un dos' e wug, (They come,) repeat. 

Pe na' se wug, (The birds, i. e. the warlike birds.) 

Ka baim wai wa dung-ig. (Hear the sound of their passing screams 

on the air.) 

b. The idea of ravenous birds hovering in the sky, still prevails — 

Tod of to be (I wish to change myself to be) 

Pe na' se. (A bird.) 

Ka dow we a we yun'. (His swift body — to be like him.) 

c. The warrior now rises above all thoughts of fear. 

Ne wa be na, (I cast it away.) 

Ne ow a. (My body.) 

Ne wa be na, (Repeats.) This is a high symbolical boast of per* 
Ne ow a. sonal bravery. 

d. He appeals to the Great Spirit for extraordinary power. 

Na bun a kum ig, (On the front part of the earth,) 

Tshe ba be wish' em ug. (First shines [strikes] the light.) 
In do main' em ik, (Such power to me,) 

Mon- e do, (My God,) 

Sha wa nem id. (In thy mercy give !) 

By the boldness of this figure he claims the omnipotent potver of the 
8* 1 to see and discover his enemies. 



4lt , TRABI'PIONARY WAR SONGS» 

e. He upbraids such of his people as hold back, and^ da mt jo»i in ihci 
dance— -that is to say. enlist in the war. 

go nain-j e win ? (Why do ye, warriors,) 

A be yun ah, (Stand back ?) 

Wa wos is se, we yun. (Ye who bear the mark of the Awasees.) 
The Awasee is a kind of fish, which is the lotem of a clan. 

/. He declares his full purpose to enter into the war. 

Ne ma je, e yeh ! (I go to the spot — the war path !) ^ 

Nemaje, eyeh! {Repeals.) 

Ne me kun ah, e yeh ! (My war path !) 

Ge zhig neen wa tin, (My sky is flrir and clear.) The com- 
mon phrase to denote good fortune. 

Hoh ! Ne monedo netaibua- (Let others linger. Onward ! my 
turn o win. God! — my right!) 

In presenting these specimens of the original words of some of our 
western warriors, we are permitted to give the annexed versions of them 
from the pen of one of our most gifted writers. 

WAR-SONG— "Pe-na se-wug." 
(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft.) 
BY C. F. HOFFMAN. 

I. 

Hear not ye their shrill-piping 

screams on the air? 
Up ! Braves for the conflict 

prepare ye — prepare! 
Aroused from the canebrake, 

far south by your drum, 
With beaks whet from carnage, 

the Battle Birds come. 

II. 

Oh God of my Fathers, 

as swiftly as they, 
1 ask but to swoop 

from the hi'ls on my prey: 
Give this frame to the winds, 

on the Prairie below, 
Bui my soul — like thy bolt — 

I would hurl on the foe \ 



TRADITIONARY WAR koiTOS. 



III. 

On the forehead of Earth 

strikes the Sun in his might, 
Oh gift me with glances 

as searching as light. 
In the front of the onslaught, I 

to single each crest, 
Till my hatchet grows red 

on their bravest and best. 

Why stand ye back idly, 

ye Sons of the Lakes ? 
"Who boast of the scalp-locks, 

ye tremble to take. 
Fear-dreamers may linger, 

mi/ skies are all bright — 
Charge — charge — on the VV;ir-Path, 

FOR God and the Right. 

Take the followmg additional example, of a death song. These stan- 
zas have all been actually sung on warlike occasions, and repeated in my 
hearing. They have been gleaned from the traditionary songs of the 
Chippewas of the north, whose villages extend through the region of lake 
Superior, and to the utmost sources of the Mississippi. Those bands are 
the hereditary foes of their western neighbours, the Dacotahs or Siou.K, 
who are generally cilled by them, by way of distinction, Na do wa sees, 
that is to say, our exk.mikS. The allusions in the songs are exclusively to 
them. In writing the ori;u'inal, I omit the chorus, as it is not susceptible 
of translation, and would increase considerably the space occupied. 

DEATH SONG. 

1, In opening this song the warrior is to be contemplated as lymg 
wounded on the field of battle. 

A' be tub ge' zhig, (Under the centre of the sky.) 

Ne ba baim wa wa. (I utter my bairn wa wa. 

Baimwawa, is the sonnd of passing thunders, which will convey a 
just idea of the violence of this figure. 

2. His thoughts revert to the star of his destiny. 

Ain dah' so gezhig (Every day, thou star !) 

Ke ga gun o wa boni in. (I gaze at you.) 
It is tho morning siar that is here alluded to. 



414 



TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. 



3. He sees the birds of carnage hovering over the field, 

A' be tub geezh-ig (The half of the day) 

Ai be yaun (I abide — gazing) 

Pe na se vvug (Ye warlike birds.) ' 

4. He keeps the flight o/ these birds before his mind and hears their 
shrill cries. 

Pe misk wosh e wug (They fly round the circuit of the sky.) 

Pe na' se wug (The birds— circling) 

A* be tub geezh ig oag. (Round half the circuit of the sky.) The 

meaning is, approaching him in circle, 
more nearly, as life becomes fainter in 
him. 

6. This figure is continued. He lies bleeding. 

A' zha waush e wug (They cross the enemy's line) 

Pe na se wug. (The birds.) 

6. He feels that he is called to another world. 

A pit she Mon e doag (The high gods) 

Ne mud wa wa (My praise) 

Wa we ne goag. (They sound.) 

7. He is content and willing to go. 

Ka gait', ne min wain' dum (Full happy — I) 

Ne bun ai kum ig (To lie on the battle-field) 

Tshe ba be wish e naun. (Over the enemy's line.) 

DEATH-SONG—" A' be tub go zhig." 
(From the Algonquin of Schoolcraft.) 
BY C. F. HOFFMAN. 



Under the hollow sky, 
Stretched on the Prairie lone, 

Centre of glory, 1 
Bleeding, disdain to groan, 

But like a battle cry 
Peal forth my thunder moan, 
Baim-wd-wd ! 

n. 

Star — Morning-Star, whose ray 
Still with the dawn 1 see, 



TRADITIONARY WAR SONGS. 



415 



Quenchless through half the day 
Gazing thou seest ine — 

Yon birds of carnage, they 
Fright not my gnze from theei 
Baim-icd-wd ! 

'k 

in. 

Bird, in thine airy rings 
Over the foeman's line. 

Why do thy flapping wings 
Nearer me thus incline? 

Blood of the Dauntless brings* 
Courage, oh Bird to thine ! 

Baim-wd-wd ! 

\ 

Hark to those Spirit-notes \ 
Ye high Heroes divine, 
Hymned from your god-like throats 
That Song of Praise is mine! 

Mine, whose grave-pennon floatsf 
Over the foeman's line I 
Baim-wd-wd ! 



416 



WAR-SONa. 



WAR SONG. 

Where are my foes? say, warriors, where? No forest is so black, 
That it can hide from my quick eye, the vestige of their track : 
There is no lake so boundless, no path where man may go, 
Can shield them from my sharp pursuit, or save them from my blow. 
The winds thatAvhisper in the trees, the clouds that spot the sky, 
Impart a soft intelligence, to show me where they lie, 
The very birds that sail the air, and scream as on they go, 
Give me a clue my course to tread, and lead me to the foe. 

The sun, at dawn, lifts up his head, to guide me on my way, 
The moon, at night, looks softly down, and cheers me with her ray. 
The war-crowned stars, those beaming lights, my spirit casts at night, 
Direct me as I thread the maze, and lead me to the light. 
In sacred dreams within my lodge, while resting on the land, 
Bright omens of success arise, and nerve my warhke hand. 
Where'er I turn, where'er I go, th^ is a whispering sound, 
That tells me I shall crush the foe, and drive him from my ground. 

The beaming west invites me on, with smiles of vermil hue, 
And clouds of promise fill the sky, and deck its heavenly blue. 
There is no breeze— there is no sign, in ocean, earth or sky, 
That does not swell my breast with hope, or animate my eye. 
If to the stormy beach I go, where heavy tempests play. 
They tell me but. how warriors brave, should conquer m the fray. 
All nature fills n y heart with fires, that prompt me on to go. 
To rush with ra^;t;. and lifted spear, upon my country's foe. 



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